Into the Abyss
by Blade of Justice
Summary: During a horrific storm, the likes of which Gamindustri has never seen, Neptune has a freak accident that leads to her waking up in someone else's bed with no memory of how she got there. But hey! Minor case of amnesia? Trapped in another dimension? You'd think this would be a normal day for Neptune... But as she'll soon learn, this strange new world is far from being normal.
1. Chapter 1

The past few days had been terribly harsh for Gamindustri. A storm like nothing the world had ever seen had been terrorizing all four nations, and everything in-between, and not a single person could determine its origins. It had just up and started one day, causing more and more damage as time went on without giving the world any indication that the end was in sight.

_"...urry..."_

At first, it had seemed like it would be manageable. The CPUs gathered together, despite the storm, to make an announcement to the people at large. It was a basic sort of precautionary thing, stay inside and don't go near windows and whatnot, but it seemed to have helped calm people down. The CPUs had requested the aid of 5pb. to deliver encouraging messages to the masses via the net, and thanks to their combined efforts, the people could stay calm.

_"...ave..."_

That is, at least, until power started to fail.

First it crashed in Lowee. They had already been getting over a particularly nasty blizzard, so the mysterious storm couldn't have had worse timing. Being relatively close, Lastation and Planeptune's CPUs put past differences aside and began making preparations to get the ailing nation supplies. No one had heard from Lowee in a full day, and neither their CPU or Candidates had appeared despite the fact they should have been able to brave the storm.

_"...have to...save..."_

Things seemed like they couldn't get worse, but at least those in Planeptune and Lastation figured they could get a better idea of the situation once they got to Lowee. There was some hope to be found there, wasn't there?

It didn't seem like it once communications with Leanbox ceased as well.

Black Heart of Lastation had been ready sooner, so she went to deliver what she could to Lowee. Without any ships running, she was taking a heavy load all on her own, but she knew it had to be better than nothing. Purple Heart and Purple Sister, worried as they were, were to wait for word from Black Heart before they took their own supplies down to Leanbox.

It had been nearly a day since Neptune, otherwise known as Purple Heart and the CPU of Planeptune, had heard from Noire, aka Black Heart.

_"If something is so wrong that Blanc can't get through to us... We can't risk running in blind. If you don't hear from me in a day, then something went wrong."_

_The girl on the other line had paused. _

_"... Take care of Uni for me."_

_"Noire!"_

_The other CPU had disconnected, leaving Neptune staring at her communicator in stunned silence._

Neptune shook her head furiously. It hadn't been a full day yet! Noire was probably fine! The reason it was taking so long was probably because she was just helping in Lowee or something... Yeah, that had to be it! That workaholic had probably gotten so wrapped up in helping people, she had forgotten all about letting everyone know she was okay!

"That has to be it, right?" Neptune asked herself quietly, staring out her office's window in concern. It was a room she almost never used, but in this kind of emergency situation, any emergency signal or transmission was to go straight to this room, unless of course Histoire picked up on it first. Because of that, as soon as Lowee had lost power, Neptune found herself checking in on her dusty old office a lot.

_"...please..."_

Neptune shook her head. She wasn't sure if it was her connection to the Sharicite or just how strangely worried she had gotten, but ever since the storm had started, she had begun feeling like she was hearing things. Not with her ears, though... With her heart.

It was weird. Was someone calling her? Was it Blanc? Vert? No, she had been hearing the voice for longer than Lowee and Leanbox had been without power. So what could it have possible been?

"Maybe I'm just going bonkers... I must be getting cabin fever or something! Yeah, that's it."

Neptune nodded to herself. It had to be something like that. She couldn't add hallucinations to the list of problems she was already dealing with. She was the only active CPU left in the world right now, at least until Noire got back (which she would!), so she couldn't afford to slack off right now. Even a couch potato like her understood that much.

The CPU was pulled out of her musing when she heard a knock at the door.

"Sister? Dinner is ready. It's not a lot, but..."

The soft voice of Neptune's younger sister, Planeptune's CPU Candidate, came from the other side of the door. Forcing a grin, Neptune called out to the girl and made her way towards her door.

"I can smell it from here, Nep Jr.! Can't wait to-"

_"...please...you must..."_

Neptune's words caught in her throat. What was this? Was this a practical joke? The storm? Or was someone reaching out to her, but only she could hear?

The voice gone, Neptune sighed as she opened the door.

"Whoever it is should probably try something else. That was the plot of the first-"

"What the goo- Bwah!"

Having already forgotten about Nepgear thanks to that pesky head voice, Neptune had gone and smashed the door right into her baby sister's schnoz! Poor Nep Jr.!

"S-Sorry about that!" Neptune cried, guiltily grateful for the mundane distraction as she bent down to check on Nepgear, who was slowly sitting up with a dizzy look in her eyes. "You okay? Didn't bust it, did I?"

"I-I'm fine, I just didn't realize you would come right out...!" Nepgear was rushing her words out now, a weak grin coming to her features. Neptune narrowed her eyes as she looked over her sister, eyes finally settling on the growing lump on her forehead.

"Shoot... I did that, didn't I?" Neptune smiled sheepishly as she helped her sister up. It didn't look too bad, and a quick healing item would fix it under normal circumstances, but with things as they were, they had to ration things. "You want me to go get some ice for you?"

"Oh no, I'll get it," Nepgear shook her head furiously. The fact she could do that without falling over made Neptune feel a little bit better, but not by much. Seeing her elder sister's concern, Nepgear raised her hands in front of her in protest. "Honest! You just took me by surprise..."

Neptune eyed Nepgear warily, before placing her hands on her hips and sighing in defeat.

"Alright, you win. I'm gonna check around outside for you though, you take it easy!" And before Nepgear could refuse, Neptune was dashing down the hallway, arm raised in a farewell wave.

Planeptune was the only nation of the four with advanced enough backup generators that, should the storm take out primary power, things should still be able to run as they would normally.

Well, as normally as possible in horrific weather like this, anyway.

While Nepgear and her team were the one who kept the things running and up to date, currently all that needed to be done was make sure they or the nearby facility they were inside hadn't been damaged. Normally this was Nepgear's job, but Neptune didn't want her little sis out and about if she might be feeling woozy.

No, truthfully Neptune didn't want Nepgear (or anyone for that matter) to be out in this at all. Who knew when they could meet the same fate as Lowee and Leanbox had? Those backup generators weren't guarantees!

Neptune berated herself inwardly as she headed towards the doors that would lead her to the currently terrifying outside world. "The same fate as Lowee and Leanbox"? They could be fine for all she knew! They probably were, in fact!

"S-Shoot!" Neptune felt like she almost blew away as soon as she stepped outside. The winds had really picked up, it was pouring, and the sound of thunder was echoing in her ears already. It was almost like she had walked right into a cartoon for crying out loud!

Pulling her hood over her head, the goddess began to run towards her destination, her feet making large splashes with each step she took. Thankfully they weren't suffering the same kind of flooding Lastation was dealing with, but Neptune figured at this point that it was only a matter of when it happened to them, not if.

_"...must...hurry..."_

As she hurried down the empty Planeptune streets, Neptune grimaced. Not only was she soaked, freezing, and feeling like she could get blown away at any second, but that stupid voice just had to pick now to bug her too?! Could its timing BE any worse?!

_"...hurry..."_

Finally, stupid hallucinations be darned, Neptune had arrived at the facility she needed to check. She let out a sigh of relief as she made her way towards the front door, which thankfully was made to automatically unlock when a CPU or Candidate of Planeptune approached. Some idea of Nepgear's involving Sharicite. Whatever it was, Neptune had never understood it but she had never been more thankful for her nerdy sister as she rushed through the front doors and into the glorious, glorious dryness of the generator facility.

"Think I'll stick around and keep these poor lonely machines company for a little while while I dry off..." Neptune mused as she removed her soaking hoodie. She was still standing in the entrance hall, panting and dripping from the rain, but she already felt a little better.

Neptune simply stood there got a few moments, leaning against the wall with her eyes closed as her breathing finally returned to its normal pace... Which revealed the flaw of her stripping plan.

_"...please save..."_

Much as she knew she needed to get out of that hoodie-turned-sponge, she was still freezing.

"Let's just get this over with so I can go home..." Neptune grumbled, deciding to ignore the dumb voice for the time being. She had more important things to do. At least Nepgear hadn't had to come out in this, though that feeling of sisterly accomplishment did little to warm her up. Sighing, Neptune began trudging deeper into the cold, metal building, towards where the generators were, ignoring the slick, squeaking noises her shoes were making as she walked.

_"...why..."_

Neptune stopped suddenly. She was pretty sure the voice had never said that before. Curiosity getting the better of her, Neptune looked around to see if anyone was around.

Nope. Not that she expected anything different.

"Why what?" the freezing CPU called out. She waited, hearing her voice echo throughout the building, in the hopes that someone might answer her and let her in on why she had been hearing things.

However, after a few moments, the echoing began to fade and still no one answered. Neptune supposed she should have seen that coming, but even so, she couldn't help but sigh in exasperation. Didn't whoever was calling know she had better things to deal with than-

_"...the storm...why..."_

In one second flat Neptune went from frustrated to alert, which was really saying something for her. The building shook from an especially loud bout of thunder, but Neptune paid it and the following crashes no mind.

The voice that had been asking for help all this time... It had been asking for help from this storm?!

"Where are you?! I can't help if I don't know which way I should go!" Neptune's cried out, making her way towards the generators much more quickly now. If the voice was answering her, then that meant she might need to try to get its owner help, and if that was the case, she couldn't be wasting time here!

_"...won't stop..."_

The thunder and wind outside was getting louder, and Neptune realized some windows must have broken and that had caused the crash a few moments ago. She needed to move quickly!

_"...the storm..."_

There, the generator room was just ahead!

_"...you...have to..."_

Neptune breathed a sigh of relief as she slowed her pace somewhat. Despite the rush she suddenly found herself in, she was relieved to see everything in here was doing okay. Even the roar of the wind and thunder and rain wasn't going to stop her now.

At that moment, a loud crash, one even louder than the last, shook away any feeling of relief she might have had.

"Yikes!" Neptune glanced in the direction it had come from, suddenly realizing that had sounded really close. Too close for comfort and way too close to worry about voices right now.

_"...have to save..."_

Neptune made her way over to the generators, faster than she might normally have, to give them a quick once over. Nepgear's "procedure" would have taken too long, all she really needed to do was make sure the things were still running and-

More crashes. She hasn't been sure before, but those were definitely coming from somewhere close inside the building.

_"...save..."_

Neptune shook her head. Couldn't this dumb voice tell she was busy?!

The loudest noise of all. Neptune, on instinct, looked up towards the source, her eyes going wide. Time seemed to slow down as her mind rushed to piece together what she was seeing.

The ceiling was gone.

No, that wasn't right.

It was coming towards her.

The ceiling was coming right towards her.

_"...save...YOURSELF..."_

The voice was the last thing Neptune's mind registered before her whole world went black.

* * *

Neptune was in pain. A whole lot of pain, in fact. The first thing she could tell as she slowly began to regain consciousness was that she ached all over. Her whole body hurt and she let out a groan, squeezing her eyes shut as she rolled over. The soft mattress she found herself in was at least really, really soft, and the fluffy blankets that were surrounding her made it feel like she could just up and melt right into them...

The act of rolling over caused her to groan again, but now that she was lying on her bare stomach, she felt much more comfortable. Her cold body, sore as it was, was so incredibly grateful for this warm bed and these warm, fluffy blankets that she couldn't be too bothered with the details right now.

Boy was Neptune glad she had started sleeping in the nude! She could never have felt this good with how cold and sore she was with clothes on!

... Hold on a minute.

Wait.

Wait just one gosh darn second.

Since when did she sleep in the nude?!

Letting out a cry, Neptune pushed herself up and sat up, which only caused her to cry out a second time, this time as her naked body was wrapped in icy cold air and pain from the sudden movement.

The CPU wrapped her arms around herself, both to give herself a sense of decency as well as to provide warmth while she surveyed her surroundings.

She was in a nice looking bed, one she knew from just a few moments ago was incredibly comfy, though the colors of the sheets and pillows were lacking. As she looked around to the left and right, she didn't see much in the way of furniture. Just the necessities, all with the colors of someone who clearly spent too much time around graveyards.

"Finally awake, are you? Good. I was kind of hoping I would get my bed back some time this week..."

Neptune froze. And it wasn't because she was cold.

The voice that came from behind her... She knew that voice. She knew that voice all too well. She had no idea why the owner of that voice would want anything to do with her, but there was just no mistaking it.

Turning her aching head, a sense of dread welling up in her, Neptune still found herself crying out when her fears were confirmed.

"_Arfoire_?!"


	2. Chapter 2

For a few moments, Neptune just sat there, staring dumbly at the woman in the doorway. It was, without a doubt, Arfoire. Not only did it being that dastardly bar-whore's room explain the totally drab colors of the room, but it had to explain why she was hurting so much too. Why else would she be in so much pain? And so cold too! Arfoire had obviously done something terrible to her!

To Neptune's surprise, it was the evil witch who broke the silence... by laughing? What was funny about this?!

"Look, kid, I'm sure you've got no idea why you woke up in the bed of Cruptindustri's number one eggplant farmer, but you look like you're going to drop dead if you're not careful. I don't think you should be moving around like that."

Cruptindustri? Number one eggplant farmer? Neptune was at a total loss for words. What was that evil witch going on about now? None of that made any sense...!

... At least not to Neptune. To Arfoire, though? How else should the woman react when someone she's never met before screams her name like that? Had to be yet another satisfied customer. Those flyers she had put up were paying off!

To Neptune though? Well... Actually... Now that she mentioned it, something was definitely off with Arfoire's appearance now that Neptune gave her a second look. Though her skin was still that weird gray color, it was a bit darker (tanner?) than Neptune remembered it being... From being in the sun, maybe? And her clothes... They were so plain! Colors aside, she actually DID look like a farmer!

What in Gamindustri was going on here?!

And more importantly...

"W-Why am I naked?!"

The woman that Neptune was sure was Arfoire scowled as Neptune made her best efforts to cover herself with the fluffy blankets and turn around at the same time. It should be criminal for Arfoire to have such a nice bed! Even Neptune didn't have a bed this nice! Neptune was totally going to have someone arrest her!

"You would that know better than I would, kid," the woman informed Neptune as-a-matter-of-factly, crossing her arms over her chest as she did so. She had looked a bit cocky a moment ago when she had thrown her sales pitch or whatever at Neptune, but now she just had attitude. And Neptune did _not_ like that attitude, especially coming from Arfoire of all people!

"Yeah, right... I bet you're just saying that, when really, you brainwashed me so you could steal the innocence of a sweet maiden for your newest evil plot!" Neptune made her declaration like any good main character, though her dramatic pointing was hindered due to her using her other arm to keep her body wrapped in Arfoire's blankets. The pain that shot through her body from the quick movement didn't make things any easier. "Ow! Owowowow... Didn't anyone tell you you have to be gentle?"

Arfoire stared at Neptune for a moment, her eye twitching. There might have been a vein pulsing on her forehead as well. She seemed to be debating something internally. If Neptune had to guess, probably how to cook her! Well, no if Neptune had anything to say about it...

Once again surprising Neptune, Arfoire simply turned and left the room, saying something about ungrateful twerps under her breath as she left. The door was slammed behind her, with such force that it actually caused Neptune more pain from all the way across the room.

For a few moments, Neptune watched the door. She was waiting for Arfoire to burst back in wearing her normal clothes (not that that tacky outfit could be considered normal) to attack Neptune while she was down. Maybe she'd do some other terrible thing too, as Neptune knew she was clearly just not up to defending herself at the moment. Just how had Arfoire gotten the jump on her like this in the first place? And why hasn't she finished Neptune off yet? It didn't make any sense.

Shivering, Neptune decided that she would have to deal with Arfoire when she came. For now, she needed to lie down again. Her body was hurting and even though she had blankets wrapped around her, she felt noticeably colder than she had when she had been curled up in this strange bed. After casting one last glance (more like a glare) at the door, Neptune slowly lowered herself into the bed's fluffy niceness and closed her eyes.

Sleep just wouldn't come, however, which was probably for the best.

Her body hurt all over.

Her mind was racing, and the more laps she made, the more she realized she was driving blind.

How did she get here? Where was here in the first place? Why was she hurting so much? Why was she so cold? Why was she in Arfoire's bed? Why wasn't Arfoire trying to kill her? If Arfoire was here, didn't that mean Plutia and Peashy and the others from this world should be around too? But why would Arfoire call their world Cruptindustri?

Neptune swallowed, or at least tried to. On top of everything else, her throat was dry. Fantastic.

"Okay girl, first thing's first... How did I get here?" Neptune finally opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling as she tried to recall what she had been doing before she woke up here.

She remembered a voice. Yeah... That's right. Something about a voice. Thinking on it though, that was probably just a dream, because the memories there were fuzzy and unclear and dark and super vague to boot. It made her head hurt to try to remember, which was quite a feat given how much pain she was already in, though it definitely made her point to it having just been a dream.

So she'd probably just had a nightmare... That wasn't saying much considering her situation right now was straight out of a nightmare. What about before she went to sleep?

Neptune scrunched her eyes closed and tried her hardest to remember. It wasn't like she didn't know who she was or where she came from or anything, it was just... Anything that could explain her current situation at all just wasn't there, no matter how hard she tried to recall it. The last thing she clearly remembered for sure was getting a call from Blanc. Well, White Heart at the time, but Blanc would always be Blanc, right?

_"Dammit Neptune! We just got over the friggin blizzard from hell, and now it's pouring! What kind of shithead is deciding the weather these days, huh?!"_

Neptune couldn't remember much else, but nothing had been out of the ordinary at the time... It had been raining, but that didn't really say much of anything. Just that Blanc was being a drama queen. She had been nice and cozy in Planeptune when she'd gotten the call, hadn't she?

So how had she gone from there and ended up like this?

"Okay... So I don't know _how_ I got here, but maybe I can at least figure out where _here_ is..." Neptune bit her lip. It wasn't like she could do much of that stuck in bed like this, but her body told her that moving was out of the question right now. She didn't have much to go on, then, but she could at least try using what she had! "What did she say again? Cupcakindustri? No, that's not it..."

Neptune rolled onto her side as she tried to recall Arfoire's words, letting out a muffled noise of pain as she moved. This whole hurting thing was getting really old really fast.

Anyway... What was it again...?

Stuckindustri? Cryptindustri? No, wait... Cruptindustri, that was it! Definitely not Gamindustri.

If Arfoire wasn't lying, and for once Neptune didn't get that vibe from the gothic weirdo (who was looking a lot less gothic than normal), then she wasn't in any form of Gamindustri right now... So that meant that it was like when she crashed into the other Noire that time and met Plutia and everyone else in that world. She was in some kind of crazy alternate universe. Again.

"Talk about original," Neptune muttered under her breath.

Still... That didn't explain everything. It might explain why Peashy and Plutia hadn't come to her rescue straight away and why this Arfoire apparently had no idea who she was, but that didn't explain nearly enough. Arfoire was still Arfoire, and Arfoire would never ever in a million billion years take someone home with her to help them get better, which meant that she had definitely been the one to cause Neptune's injuries. Definitely had to be Arfoire.

And yet... Neptune couldn't help but doubt that reasoning. If Arfoire had done this, why was she here in the woman's bed... recovering? Why hadn't Arfoire been her nasty self earlier? As much as Neptune wanted to deny that possibility, she had watched enough anime to know exactly what kind of scenario this was. Maybe this world's Arfoire just liked picking up little girls off the street? Well, she's be in for a surprise once Neptune transformed and-

As if struck by lightning, Neptune sat up, quickly covering her mouth to muffle the cry of pain that came with the sudden movement (and the following one that came with moving her arms).

The last time she had wound up in another world, she had lost her connection to the Sharicite and become a normal human. She had needed to seek out the means to once again become a goddess, lest she start aging and all that other icky stuff. Plus, she had been so weak as a human!

As Neptune recalled this, she realized something. Being human would totally explain everything. The pain, for one thing, but it would also confirm for sure that she was in another world... Provided it was a world that didn't let her keep her goddesshood, and sure enough.

"It's still there..." Neptune murmured. It was faint, like she was having to reach for it through thick fog, but she was definitely still connected to the Sharicite. It was weak, but she felt it for sure, which was a drastically different from what it had been like in the other world.

What did that mean though?

There was a knock at the door. Inhaling sharply, Neptune set aside her concerns, closed her eyes, and tried to look natural, though that was considerably more difficult than it normally would have been given the soreness she felt all over. She grit her teeth and hoped against hope that whoever it was would just go away and leave her alone. Maybe if they just left her here long enough, she could recover on her own and make an epic escape!

"Comin' in..."

Darn!

Though... Yeah, hold on, that wasn't Arfoire's voice. It was vaguely familiar, a voice Neptune hadn't heard in years, but it was one she recognized all the same. She was tempted to risk being discovered and peek to see who it was, but not only was that too risky right now, the act of doing so would probably hurt too much anyway. She could wait. It wasn't like she was going anywhere right now, after all.

The person's footsteps weren't as precise as Arfoire's. While the witch woman walked with precision and purpose, there was a clumsiness to this newcomer's stride that told Neptune, if nothing else, she wasn't in danger like she might have been if Arfoire had come back.

"The boss made me make this for you. Dunno why, but if you're gonna eat it, you should do it while it's warm."

W... Was this person... Was this person talking about food...?

She hadn't realized it before, but with the scent of something delectable filling her nostrils, Neptune slowly began to realize that she was starving beneath all those aches and pains.

And it was warm! Warm the person said!

Neptune's stomach cried out angrily as Neptune herself continued waiting. No matter how badly she wanted to eat, she couldn't give in with a stranger in here like that! She couldn't!

"Anyways, you look about my size, so I'm leaving some clothes for ya here too. Boss lady's orders." The person paused, finally letting out a sigh. "I can tell you're awake, you know. Just 'cause I'm the bottom of the farmhands here doesn't mean shit, so don't go judging me like I'm some kinda underling!"

As soon as the person spoke that final word, Neptune was able to figure out who was talking to her, and now she was trying to stay silent for an entirely different reason than before. She was trying not to burst out laughing.

The girl, who Neptune was trying in vain to remember the name of, waited for a moment before letting out some kind of annoyed noise.

"Whatever. Your loss if you wanna eat it cold."

With that, if her footsteps were anything to go off of, she turned and left, finally allowing Neptune the sweet release of letting her giggles escape her. Seriously, that Underling chick working on a farm? Wait until Nepgear got a load of that!

Her giggles quickly faded at that particular thought. It had been one thing to be stuck in a super fun world with a bunch of new friends without her sister, but to be stuck with Arfoire and Underling and who knows who else of all people? While she was feeling so bad too? That didn't make for a good time at all.

Not only that... She kinda missed the squirt already.

Plus... She didn't want Nep Jr. to get so upset again. Truth be told, after getting so close to Peashy throughout that particular ordeal, it had made her appreciate her sister (her real one) more as well. In her own way, anyway. She had worked on making it up to the Candidate, and in fact was still doing so, but she doubted going on yet another other worldly adventure was going to help matters much.

"I guess I've really accepted I'm somewhere I shouldn't be..." the CPU mused, pushing thoughts of Nepgear aside for the moment. Nepgear was mature, more mature than Neptune even was most of the time. She could handle being without Neptune for a bit. Probably. On the other hand, Neptune had other things to deal with right now: a hungry tummy and a naked body among them. Then she could figure out where to go from there.

Hopefully home.

That in mind, Neptune finally, and oh so slowly, sat up, taking care not to push her aching body too much, so she could check out what had been brought to her.

A tray of food had been placed on the nightstand next to the bed, and Neptune was already drooling at the sight of it. She had been worried there would be eggplant, eggplant, and more eggplant given what Arfoire had said earlier, but instead what she saw was piping hot soup, warm bread that looked like it had been buttered only moments ago, and some tasty looking meat to top it all off.

Licking her lips, the CPU resisted the urge to dive right in and looked for where that Underling girl had put the clothes she could wear. She didn't want anyone to walk in on her naked body again, especially not her naked body in the midst of chowing down. Gorgeous girls like her couldn't just be giving free shows like that, after all, and who knew what would happen if a picture was taken and put on the internet of Planeptune's CPU in such a state...

Imagine if the other CPUs got hold of it!

The girl, in her distracted state, completely missed the various injuries and bandages littering her normally spotless body, for the idea of Noire using Nepposhop on pictures of her was much more concerning to her.

Shuddering at the mere thought if what Noire might do to her innocent form (if she only knew), the aching girl looked and looked and looked until her eyes finally settled on a bundle at the end of the bed. What she saw there made her eyes widen in terror, and she let out a strangled cry as she realized she would have no choice but to wear that thing that had been placed there, at least until she could escape this horrible place that wanted her to wear such a truly horrific item.

She should have realized as soon as that stupid Underling mentioned "her clothes," but Neptune hasn't been paying attention. Not that knowing what horrors awaited her would make any difference.

For there, sitting innocently at the end of the bed, was a very familiar gray and red hoodie, complete with an all too familiar mouse design on the hood. Neptune knew it was very likely that her options were to either wear this or go naked, and she really didn't fancy strutting her stuff for Arfoire and her "farmhands," especially since, if her hunch was right, a certain perverted mouse would be among them.

And so Neptune could only whimper pitifully as she slowly, painstakingly, crawled over to the tacky thing and resigned herself to her fate as she began to get dressed.

At least she take solace in the fact that she could eat as soon as she was done putting this horrible thing on.

"Why me...?"

Little did Neptune know...

She hadn't seen anything yet.


	3. Chapter 3

Feeling significantly warmer now that her belly was full of delicious steaming food, Neptune decided it was time to investigate... wherever it was that she was. She knew that she was in "Cruptindustri," but that told her a whole lot of nothing. Since it seemed like no one was coming to her, Neptune figured now was a good a time as any to make her move.

"A really... slow move..." the CPU muttered, forcing back another groan.

When she had been dressing herself, she had finally noticed the various wounds that were decorating her body. She had been... surprised, to say the least. Bandages were covering some parts of the damage, while there were also cuts and bruises scattered about that didn't require that at all.

She knew she could fix herself right up with some healing items, but upon discovering her inventory to be completely empty, she suddenly found herself thankful for the baggy hoodie and pants she had been given. They'd at least cover up most of the damage until she could get her hands on a healer or get to an item shop, and the latter would probably have new clothes for sale too.

"I have to admit... I kinda look cute in this..."

Neptune had thought she would have hated to be seen in the outfit, but as she looked herself up and down in Arfoire's mirror, she couldn't help but recognizing she didn't look half bad. It helped that she was naturally great looking, of course, but she had honestly expected something much worse than this. Since she didn't have the mouse hood on her head and she'd zipped up the front of the top to cover up her injuries, it was actually (surprisingly) a pretty decent outfit. If she hadn't been in so much pain, she might have even done a little twirl.

"Okay, enough modeling!" Neptune fought back the urge to slap herself on the cheeks, instead choosing to finish crossing the room so she could ready herself at the door. She needed to focus if she wanted to figure out what was going on.

The fact of the matter was that Neptune had absolutely no idea what would be waiting for her on the other side of this door.

After all, just what sort of backwards place could produce Arfoire... as a farmer? Seriously, a farmer? Arfoire? That's just crazy!

For a moment, she entertained a variety of possible scenarios. They ranged from utopian to dystopian to downright apocalyptic. None of them really explained the whole farmer deal, though, which left Neptune with few remaining options.

"One way to find out what we're in for for sure...!" Neptune took a deep breath in, preparing herself for the worst, and, at long last, opened the door to the new world that would await her.

Sadly, what she found behind the door was rather anticlimactic.

"This is it?" Planeptune's CPU puffed her cheeks out in disappointment. It was so... so ordinary! She had expected some kind of evil castle or a witch's lair or maybe even a cave! Not a plain old hallway! For crying out loud, that was no plot twist at all!

Sighing, Neptune gently closed the door behind her before stuffing her hands in her pockets. She looked down the hallway, taking it in and trying to get a sense of... something out of it. Maybe she could have at least some idea of what was going on before she had to talk to someone again!

So for a moment, as if she was preparing for a deadly trial in which her very life was on the line, Neptune looked down the hallway and investigated.

And investigated.

And investigated.

And... investigated.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard Neptune tried to pretend this was a super serious situation straight out of a hit video game, the fact remained that it was a perfectly ordinary hallway. A bit long, admittedly, with so many rooms it made her head spin and a ceiling so high it just confused her, but nothing really stood out beyond the fact that whatever kind of building she was in, it had to be big.

On one side of the hall, there was a row of doors... and on the other side, yet another row. Neptune stood at the far end, where Arfoire's room had been at the end of the hallway. She supposed that meant Arfoire was the one in charge here, but if that was the case...

"Didn't that Underling girl say 'the boss' was the one who wanted me to have food and clothes?"

That didn't make sense to Neptune at all. Arfoire didn't even treat her allies that well, let alone her enemies. Just what was she playing at? Had Neptune fallen into some kind of trap?

Some might be frustrated by this situation. No recent memory, stuck in a strange place, and all beat up to boot? Anybody would complain. Truthfully, part of Neptune wanted to, and maybe, once she was home, she would tell Histy allllll about this horrible ordeal to avoid some work.

Right now, though? Neptune was more curious than anything. It took a whole lot to get this CPU down, and this surely wasn't it.

"Besides, if ol' Arfy tries something on me, I'll just kick her butt," Neptune reasoned with herself. Really, there wasn't any real reason to get too worried, was there? As soon as she got out of here she could just go find this world's versions of her friends, have some fun with them for a while like she had last time, and then she'd go on home. After all, wasn't this scenario totally normal for protagonists?

Yeah, that's right, she was the main character here! She had nothing to worry about! Nothing at all!

Having thoroughly convinced herself everything was going to be okay, Neptune started down the hall. Her body still ached something fierce, but she knew as soon as she got out of here it would only be a matter of time before she felt better. With that and the desire for some REAL clothes driving her, Neptune paid the rows of doors no mind as she passed them, heading straight for the stairs instead.

"That's weird..." As she neared the stairs at the end of the hallway, it occurred to her that none of the doors had been open and she hadn't heard any noise coming from inside any of them. A sly grin rose to her features as she realized the likely reason that was: Of course Arfoire didn't have any friends or even many workers! It was Arfoire after all!

Making a mental note to be sure to rub it in Arfoire's face if the witch-turned-farmer ticked her off, Neptune cheered inwardly as she approached the final pair of doors. She was finally seeing the stairs! Just a little more and she'd be able to know just where she was and what was-

_**WHAM**_

Her goal so close, Neptune collapsed just in front of the finish line as pain surged throughout her body, finally slipping into unconsciousness. The cause? The last door on the left, the one Neptune had just been walking past, had been slammed open and right into her injured body.

And it had slammed _hard_.

* * *

"You idiot! You coulda killed her or something, you know that!? We still don't even know who this broad is!"

"I... I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it! What have I done?! I'm too young to go to jail!"

"Aw, shaddup! I don't think robots even can go to jail! Besides, she's still breathing. See?"

"WHAT?! Let me look!"

As Neptune began to wake up, the first thing she realized (and boy did she realize it quickly) was that her head was killing her. The second thing she realized was that two people were yelling really, really loudly, and that seriously wasn't helping her headache.

"Can't a girl get some beauty sleep in peace?" Neptune grumbled, opening her eyes so she could properly confront her ears' attackers. And maybe ask if they got the number of that truck-

"SHE _LIVES_!"

Before Neptune could react, she found herself being lifted off the ground (it occurred to her in the back of her kind she wasn't in Arfoire's bedroom or the hallway anymore) and into the embrace of an enormous... enormous... enor... mous...

"Shit, Copy, you idiot! Put her down before you really do kill her!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry!"

Neptune's head was spinning as she was lowered back onto the ground, and if she thought she had been hurting before, well, she clearly had more to learn about the wonderful world of pain. She did her best to stay on her feet, but it seemed inevitable that she would topple over... that is, until someone propped her up against them. Someone who was wearing a matching outfit. That made narrowing it down easy enough, even for Neptune in her woozy state of mind.

"Easy there... You alright?" Neptune was pretty sure she was seeing things. The idea of... shoot, she felt kind if guilty calling her Underling, but anyway, the idea of Underling showing anyone concern, much less her, was something she didn't think she would have ever seen even in her wildest dreams. "Copy's kinda... like that." The pointy eared girl paused, as if making sure Neptune wasn't about to drop dead on her, before looking up at the robot that was towering over them. "Maybe you should, oh I dunno, leave? Before you break her legs next?"

The CPU wasn't sure what she should say at this point, but thankfully she didn't need to say much. The robot, looking positively heartbroken (which was quite interesting given, you know, the robot thing), made his way out of the room, leaving Neptune alone with her fashion lookalike. She vaguely registered more familiar voices coming from the other room, but her pounding head wouldn't allow for her to think too much on who they might belong to.

"Anyway... Want me to get you some ice or something? Looks like he got you right in the freaking head."

Neptune was brought back to the real world (if that's what this even was) by the girl's concerned voice, once again feeling just a little creeped out by it. Hopefully no one had sent a rescue party yet. She wanted to be somewhere where she wouldn't be risking the safety of the people who had been helping her recover, even if Nepgear leading a rescue party sounded really funny to her for some reason. Probably because of how woozy she felt...

"N-Nah, I'm fine!" Deciding it was time to set things in motion, Neptube hesitantly steadied herself before taking a few steps away from the other girl. Forcing a laugh, Neptune turned back around and gave the peace sign with her hand. "It'll take more than that to take out this CPU!"

The reaction in the other girl was almost instantaneous. The concern she wore on her face was quickly replaced with hostility and an entirely different kind of concern, concern Neptune could tell wasn't directed at her this time. Neptune had just been being herself when she'd let what she was slip, but... What was with that reaction?

Hesitantly, Neptune reached towards the girl, who she had decided she should try to be friendly with, only to have her hand slapped away.

"W-What-"

"Get out of here." The girl grabbed Neptune, refusing to meet her gaze, and forcefully began pulling her towards the door. Under normal circumstances this was something Neptune could easily fight off, but she had grabbed a particularly sore spot, and all Neptune could do was cry out in the additional pain.

Neptune tried to form some kind of response to what was happening, but as if the Underling (forget trying to be polite and figure her name out!) knew what Neptune was up to, she squeezed the CPU's wrist each time Neptune tried, causing her to only let out a cry of pain instead of anything coherent.

Before she knew it, Neptune was being shoved out the door and into the ground outside, which was slammed unceremoniously behind her.

She didn't understand...!

Why would anyone react like that to hearing that Neptune was a CPU...?

It took at least five minutes for Neptune to get back on her feet. She had already felt like a wreck before Copypaste (who seemed to be relatively the same as he had been after Blanc got her hands on him, come to think of it) had gotten his hands on her, now she felt like she could keel over at any minute. If not for that faint connection she still had to the Sharicite, she wondered if she would have already. The fact she still had that was comforting at least, but now she had no idea what to do. She had just gotten thrown out of the only place she knew here so far, and apparently being a CPU wasn't going to get her the warm welcomes she was used to.

That Nepgear rescue party was looking a lot more tempting right about now...

Letting out a strangled noise, Neptune took in her surroundings. Looks like she didn't have a choice in whether or not she was going to find an item shop now.

On one side was a large field full of... eggplants. Of course. Neptune's face turned green just looking at the things, and she quickly turned to the other side. There, at least, she was greeted with the sight of an open field with a variety of animals and other livestock doing whatever it was they did. There were other... farmy looking buildings further back too, but Neptune didn't care too much to look more. It's not like she'd be here for much longer after all.

That just left the path ahead of her then. The CPU grimaced as she prepared for the worst. If she was in the middle of the country, she supposed she could fly to the nearest city, but considering the reaction she'd just gotten, that might not be a good idea...

"Maybe they're still evil?" Neptune mused to herself, still looking in the direction of the livestock. It would explain why they didn't like CPUs, after all. Maybe the only reason they had been taking care of her was because there wasn't a "her" in this world, so they hadn't known she was a hero, evil's sworn enemy, and the main character at that!

Having decided that she was obviously much better off now that she was leaving this den of evil, Neptune turned to finally look at what kind of walk she was in for-

"Mmph!"

- only to find herself walking right into an all too familiar chest.

"Pwah!" Neptune stumbled backwards, trying to catch her breath. She hesitantly shot a glance at the face of the woman, who was looking at her with narrowed eyes. She knew all too well what Arfoire's angry faces looked like, and this was like if two of them had had a kid. Not a good sign.

Was she going to get cooked and eaten for dinner?! She should have transformed after all!

"Kid, I'm going to ask you this once and only once, and you're in for a beating if you don't tell me the truth."

Neptune closed her eyes, preparing for the worst as Arfoire placed a hand on her shoulder. The second Arfoire tried something, she would transform and...!

"Why the hell are you out here when you should be resting, and which one of those morons inside let you go?"

... okay, she hadn't been expecting that. Neptune peeked an eye open and, lo and behold, Arfoire was looking at her with that same (creepy) concern that that Underling girl had had a little while ago.

"Actually..." Neptune grinned sheepishly. Well, this would be awkward. Still readying a transformation, just in case, Neptune continued. "Under... I mean, uhhh... That girl was the one who told me to get out. Then she kinda made me, y'know?"

Arfoire stared at Neptune like she had just grown another head.

"Why?"

Neptune gulped. Straight to the point, huh? She supposed it was inevitable, but she really would have liked to have some distance between them before she made the witch mad. She was still hurting from that dumb robot's hug!

Well, better get it over with.

"I told her I was a CPU."

There. She said it. Neptune gave Arfoire a defiant look, hoping it would fend off any incoming attack long enough for her to make some kind of escape.

Arfoire's reaction was... not what Neptune was expecting. Unlike Underling, who had gotten angry and maybe even scared, Arfoire displayed different emotions entirely. She stepped back from Neptune, her mouth opening and closing, as if she was trying to figure out what to say to this revelation of Neptune's. Her face said it all though.

Surprise.

Confusion.

Hope.

Disbelief.

Despair.

Amusement.

It was strange, seeing so many emotions cross a single person's face in such a short period of time. Neptune might have laughed had she not been more preoccupied with having to worry about whether or not this woman was about to attack her.

Finally, Arfoire settled for a smirk. She crossed her arms and took a step back, as if... giving Neptune room? For what? To escape? Probably not that, but Neptune was sure going to do so if she felt it necessary!

"Okay then, kid. Prove it. Prove to me you're a CPU."

Neptune stared at the woman incredulously. Surely there was a hidden agenda here, but...

"You got it, toots! Don't say I didn't warn you!"

... no way would her pride let her worry about it now!


	4. Chapter 4

"Don't say I didn't warn you!"

Neptune grinned at Arfoire, her posture practically radiating her arrogance despite how injured she was. If she was going to make an enemy out of her enemy (that totally made sense), might as well do it with a bang, right?

The woman didn't seem intent on giving away how she was feeling about Neptune's claims. If anything, she looked like she was bored. Perhaps she was doubting her still? Well, Neptune could probably serve up a good old Neptune Break after she transformed if that wasn't good enough to convince the mean old bat!

"Here goes..."

Deciding she had built up plenty of dramatic tension, Neptune closed her eyes and prepared to let her transformation take hold of her.

... It didn't come.

"Impressive."

Neptune grit her teeth. She wasn't going to let Arfoire get to her. She had never had to transform like this before. The "fog" between her and the Sharicite was thick and sticky, but she could push through it. She had transformed with almost no shares before, she could certainly do this!

It wasn't gradual when it finally happened. It was as if there hasn't been any kind of holdup at all. Once Neptune reached the Sharicite, that was it. White light enveloped her, and she felt a rush of power fill her from head to toe as she grew into her more godly persona. As the light of her transformation faded, Neptune, now Purple Heart, opted to stand on the ground rather than float. Despite the fact that the transformation had wiped the visible traces of her injuries away, she could still feel them, more or less. She would really have to find some way to recover after this, but for now...

"Well?" Purple Heart placed a hand gently on her hip, raising an eyebrow as she watched Arfoire for some kind of reaction. She mostly expected an attack, now that she had revealed herself like this, but the lack of the hostility that Underling had given her made her wonder. Calmer now that she was in this form, she wasn't ready to jump to conclusions just yet.

That didn't mean she trusted Arfoire, of course. That was an entirely separate issue.

Arfoire, for this new one's part, had yet to attack Purple Heart. She looked... stricken, if anything. As though she had seen a ghost. She was even holding a hand to her chest, one that was clenched, which displayed... something. Purple Heart couldn't help but smirk at that, even if she had no idea what the action meant. Seems she had proven herself after all. Now how would the witch take it?

"This... This is a surprise, kid, I'll give you that," Arfoire's expression returned to normal after a few moments. She was definitely hiding something now and Purple Heart knew it. She narrowed her eyes and gave Purple Heart a once over, looking her up and down as if to analyze her. Purple Heart waited quietly. She wasn't going to attack without reason, and this Arfoire had done nothing to give her one.

Yet.

After another silent moment, without warning, Arfoire lunged forward. Purple Heart prepared to call forth a weapon, even if it would be a weak one, but to her great surprise, Arfoire wasn't attacking her. Not technically anyway. She was grabbing Purple Heart's chin, abruptly yes, and pulling the CPU closer for a better look. Nothing more. Not quite an attack, anyway.

Purple Heart wasn't sure what to make of this. All she could do was look Arfoire in the eye, her gaze firm and unwavering, while the woman looked into her eyes, as if she was... searching for something. But what?

After what seemed like an eternity of this odd behavior, Arfoire dropped her hand. Her expression was... peculiar. She didn't look angry, as Purple Heart had expected. If anything, she seemed disappointed. Let down. That made even less sense to the already confused CPU.

"You shouldn't go around telling lies, kid. I don't know what kind of trick this is, but you're not a CPU. You should avoid pulling crap like this, it'll just confuse people. I'll explain to them inside that you were confused, then you can come back in."

Purple Heart frowned, not only taken aback by Arfoire's strange words, but her complete and utter dismissal of the proof that was standing right before her very eyes. Arfoire was already stepping back, looking for the world like a game she had been looking forward to had just been canceled, but that was wrong. The game was right here, and her name was Purple Heart!

"I'm not sure how you could possibly think I'm not what I very clearly am, but..." Purple Heart puffed out her chest slightly. She was also just a little bit offended. Transforming had taken care of everything last time, why not now? "I am a CPU. Believe me. I'm from Planeptune, albeit not the Planeptune you probably-"

Purple Heart had merely been explaining herself. She had just been about to get to how she was from another world and hopefully erase any confusion the woman might have about her. Maybe she doubted Purple Heart because she had simply never heard of her before. That was reasonable, wasn't it? She hasn't existed in Plutia's world after all...

After her revelation of being a CPU, Purple Heart certainly hadn't expected any change in Arfoire at the mention of her nation of all things. Yet, like when she had let slip she was a CPU with Underling earlier, the mention of Planeptune seemed to set something off in Arfoire. Before Purple Heart had a chance to react (Arfoire's dismissal of her very existence combined with the pain of her other form's injuries had her off her game), Arfoire had called forth a staff-like weapon and pressed Purple Heart against the farmhouse wall.

Despite this, Purple Heart found herself smiling weakly against the force Arfoire was pressing against her, who had just proven with those swift, experienced movements that she was no mere farmer after all.

Arfoire watched Purple Heart for a reaction, which confused the CPU. Wasn't she the one being attacked here? Shouldn't it be her attacker who explains herself now?

"Have you come to finish me off?" Arfoire's voice was cold, cruel, and... there was something else there, something Purple Heart couldn't quite place. Coming from Arfoire, it was just alien. "I was sure your similarities before were just coincidence, that some poor lookalike just happened to nearly die this close to me... Hell, you can even transform too! But you had that wrong, so I figured you had to be different... But I see the truth now. You're some kind of twisted creation of hers, aren't you? Well listen up, I'll rip out your organs or parts or whatever you have right here and feed them to the pigs if you don't-"

"P-Please, just wait a moment!" Understanding absolutely nothing about what this Arfoire could possibly be so upset about, Purple Heart's mind was racing to try to make a picture out of the accusations being thrown her way so that she could better explain herself, and what she really was, to the woman. "If you would just listen to me..."

"Hah!" Arfoire's laugh, as always, held a certain amount of cruelty to it, but now there was an added hint if bitterness as well. The fact she was shaking, despite the fact that she clearly had no reason to do so, added even more confusion to the situation. "Next you'll tell me your name is Neptune, right? I'm sure you were programmed with everything you needed to know to manipulate me however you wanted, maybe to even get me to come back, but I'm not falling for her tricks. Not again."

Purple Heart was getting desperate now. She could certainly... probably fight back against the woman, but she needed answers badly if she wanted to get anywhere in this world (and more importantly, back to her own), and retaliating would likely just prove whatever it was Arfoire thought of her. Was there no way to show she meant no harm?

"I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about," the CPU tried to reason, even going as far as to drop her hands to her sides to show she would not fight back. Not that that meant much. She could just as easily kick Arfoire away if she wanted to, but...

Arfoire, for a brief moment, seemed to consider Purple Heart's words, as her actions seemed sincere. She didn't seem like a threat... But from her perspective, this all being some kind of ploy made far more sense than a random customer of hers conveniently collapsing practically on her doorstep. Unless... No, there couldn't be any other explanation.

"Listen, I've made a good life for myself here. I work hard, I make ends meet, and I can even support all of those morons inside. Not a lot of people can say that they can do that these days." Arfoire jabbed her weapon into Purple Heart's chest. Not too hard, but enough to get her point across. It made Purple Heart gasp in pain, if nothing else, so Arfoire considered the message received. "I've gotten away from that life. I got a fresh start. I don't want any more trouble from her. I left her alone, so she could run everything into the ground or do whatever it is she wants, so she can leave me alone to my business just the same."

Purple Heart was beginning to understand... something, though it was difficult to do much about it when she was being prodded like that.

Arfoire had some kind of history with someone. Not a good one. She had left that life to become a farmer (Purple Heart still couldn't believe this part, but evidently it really was true), and she didn't want anything to do with her old life... Yet for some reason, Purple Heart claiming to be from Planeptune had Arfoire thinking that she was involved with whoever Arfoire was trying to get away from. No, Arfoire believed she was some kind of... creation of this person, in fact.

Whoever they were, Purple Heart already didn't like them, and she liked less that she and her nation (even if it wasn't technically "hers") were being associated with them.

Arfoire watched Purple Heart for a few more moments, as if she was thinking about something. Maybe she was considering Purple Heart's side? The CPU could only hope.

"I have to admit... Something doesn't add up here." Before Purple Heart could relax, Arfoire continued, her tone still accusatory. "What was it you were saying before? When I cut you off?"

Now Purple Heart could let out a sigh of relief. Inwardly, anyway. Maybe there was still hope in this situation, absurd as it was. She wouldn't know unless she tried, that was for sure.

First thing's first, though...

"I'd be happy to explain it to you, but..." Purple Heart have Arfoire a strained look and raised a hand to gently touch Arfoire's weapon. It was pressing right on a particularly sore rib. "Would you be willing to move this first?"

The woman, who Purple Heart suddenly (finally, more like) noticed was in a more "Arfoire"-like outfit, gave her a doubtful look... then promptly rammed the weapon into her chest before pulling it away, leaving Purple Heart to collapse onto the ground in a spasm of coughs from the sudden pain. Had she been in her human form, she probably would have blacked out altogether.

"W-Was that... necessary...?!" Purple Heart managed to get a few words out between coughs as she struggled to her feet, shooting a glare at Arfoire. She could always get answers elsewhere, and her patience could only last so long. She had gone along with this because Arfoire hadn't tried to harm her badly thus far, but now that she had, she was suddenly finding herself caring a lot less about the witch's opinion.

"It was a precaution," Arfoire answered simply.

Purple Heart was sorely tempted to snap at her, but after looking up at Arfoire while leaning against the wall to get her balance, she didn't see any malice in Arfoire's expression. It was neutral again.

She was giving Purple Heart a chance.

Under normal circumstances, Purple Heart wouldn't particularly care what Arfoire did or didn't do, but after the witch had clearly helped her recover from whatever had happened upon her arriving in this world, she decided she would give her the benefit of the doubt one more time. Just one, though.

She still wouldn't let herself get hit again, that was for sure.

"You said... You said this is Cruptindustri, right?" Purple Heart asked quietly. Arfoire apparently hadn't expected a question like that (after all, where else would they be?), as it clearly took her off guard.

It didn't last long though. Shame.

"That's right. We're not too far from the ocean right now, but this is neutral territory. Closest nation is Lowee, obviously. Why?"

Purple Heart closed her eyes. Time for some good old fashioned exposition.

"I don't know about whatever Planeptune you might know, and that's because my home is a place called Gamindustri..."

* * *

Purple Heart's explanation had taken longer than she had wanted it to. Naturally, she excluded pointing out that Arfoire was an evildoer where she had come from, and she felt no need to get into the details of her personal life or the smaller details of her adventures in her Gamindustri or the other one. Names were left out, of course, instead opting for titles like "Lastation's CPU" for any description she needed. Arfoire didn't seem too interested in those details anyway, but she wasn't denying Purple Heart outright, so Purple Heart continued on. By the time she finished telling Arfoire about how she and the other CPUs had dealt with a catastrophe that has threatened both worlds (at least both of the ones that they had known at the time), the sun was setting.

"... and when all was said and done, the portal connecting our worlds was open constantly. Life returned to normal... Until I found myself here, of course. I'm still not sure how that even happened."

With that, Purple Heart was done. Arfoire was looking over the CPU with an expression Purple Heart couldn't read. She had no notions or expectations that Arfoire would turn around and give her this world's history, at least not right now, but she was hopeful for, if nothing else, acceptance.

If she was going to be stuck here she could really use some of that.

"That's a hell of a story. Anyone would have a hard time believing it." Arfoire's words were exactly what Purple Heart hasn't wanted to hear. Purple Heart watched the woman, tensing up and waiting for the accusations to resume once again. They never came. "It'd explain a lot more than it doesn't though..."

Wait a minute. Did Arfoire look... guilty?

She couldn't think much on it now though. At her limit, Purple Heart's body flashed with a bright, shining light, and just like that, Neptune was back... mouse hoodie and all. It seemed transforming back

"So... You believe me, Arfy?" Neptune asked, hopeful. She added a flutter of her eyelashes for effect.

"I'm not saying that, I'm saying it makes more sense than-"Arfoire paused, narrowing her eyes. She leaned down, her lips forming a fine, angry line on her face. "What did you just call me?"

"Ohhh, nothing much, Arfy!" Neptune smiled widely. It was time to lay it on her! She really didn't want to get hit again. "Just that you're the being a total pal right now and I'm super duper appreciative!"

For a moment, Arfoire looked offended, but then, out of nowhere, she laughed.

"You're definitely not something she would bother to send, that's for sure. You'd sooner be declared defective and thrown out acting like that..." Arfoire took a few steps back, allowing Neptune some breathing room. "Fine, kid. I'll believe you... for now. But I'll me keeping my eyes on you."

Choosing to ignore the "defective" comment (until she was all fixed up, anyway... though wait, if she needed to be fixed up, wasn't she technically...? oh, whatever!), Neptune let out a sigh of relief.

"Also."

Aaaaand here it comes. Neptune knew it would be too good to be true for her to get off the hook so easily.

"There's going to be some rules. And before you get pissy about them, they're for your benefit, not mine."

Neptune made a face, which Arfoire responded with a stern look. She supposed she didn't have much choice here, now did she?

"Fine, fine... What are the rules, your royal highness?" Neptune couldn't help but sound sarcastic. Otherworldly adventures were supposed to be fun, not painful and filled with rules. She hated rules!

Arfoire simply rolled her eyes at the punk kid standing before her. Yeah, it was looking more and more like some weirdo really had dropped in on them from another universe than what she had initially thought. Hopefully she wouldn't have to answer too many questions about that original train of thought just yet...

Arfoire held up one finger.

"First rule: Wear something like that all the time, especially in public." Arfoire reached over and, despite Neptune's protests, tugged the hoodie's mouse hood over her head. "You don't want to be recognized."

Arfoire held up a second finger.

"Second rule: Don't call yourself a CPU. It'll just bring unwanted attention." Arfoire clamped her hand down on Neptune's mouth before the little CPU could protest further. "If you have to transform, come up with an excuse. Just don't make it my problem."

Arfoire held up a third finger.

"And finally..." Arfoire paused, a dark look briefly crossing her features. Neptune supposed this was going to be the big one, but she had no idea how big it would be yet. "Never, and I mean never, mention Planeptune if it's not already part of a conversation. You do it on your own, it's your problem, but you do it in front of me and I'm through helping you."

Neptune was silent. It was unlike her, but there was something to be gained from analyzing these rules for a minute.

First off, Arfoire had just flat out told her she intended to help her... Whatever that meant. That was more than Neptune had been hoping for at this point, so she was definitely thankful for that.

Second... CPUs weren't liked, either in Arfoire's circle (which would honestly make plenty of sense to her) or in general. Either way, she had seen it firsthand and she supposed that was a rule she could adjust to. At least until she finally met this world's versions of her fellow CPUs, anyway.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, Planeptune was a touchy subject and apparently it would be better for Neptune to keep a low profile and disguise herself. That told Neptune the most important thing of all: It would be bad to be confused with this world's version of herself.

If Neptune had to guess, that was probably the "she" and "her" Arfoire had been talking about. She'd often wondered what meeting another version of herself would be like (she at least knew Nepgear would be thrilled to have two Neptunes instead of one, Nep Jr. had often said as much), but with how Arfoire had spoken about this person... She was honestly kinda worried. At least Nepgear wasn't here too, that would really make things confusing.

Realizing she had yet to respond to Arfoire's rules, Neptune offered a sheepish grin.

"Sounds good to me!" This seemed to appease the witch. Good. Now for the hard part. "So, uh... If it's so bad for me to be recognized like you're totally avoiding saying... The me from here must be something, huh?"

Neptune knew it was probably too soon to fish for information, but she was so curious! Maybe Arfy would get mad at her, but maybe if she was lucky, she'd learn at least about one of the CPUs here, even if it was just the other her.

Surprisingly, Arfoire answered right away. What was even more surprising was that Neptune was immediately wishing she hadn't.

"You? Cruptindustri's 'you' has been dead for years."

Neptune froze.

"But then... Who was the 'she' you were talking about?" Neptune shook her head, forcing a laugh. "Ohhhhh, haha Arfy, I get it, this is you initiating me, right? Welcoming me to the club? You're gonna tell me 'I' died from not having enough pudding to eat, right?"

Once again, Arfoire stared at Neptune like she had an extra limb. Maybe three extra limbs. And a tail.

"... Right?"

Arfoire snorted, her face looking oddly emotional for a mere observer in all this. She was definitely hiding something.

"To answer both of those questions: The 'she' is a power hungry brat who killed 'you' out of jealousy, then proceeded to take over Planeptune and start to destroy any future it may have had. Probably still doing it too. Lucky for you, it sounded like you don't have anyone like that where you come from."

Neptune swallowed. She suddenly felt worried. Really worried.

"Y-Yeah, lucky me, huh? So, uh... What was this person's name again? Y'know, so I know who to look out for when I get home."

Arfoire's answer made Neptune's blood run cold.

"Nepgear. Planeptune's current CPU."


	5. Chapter 5

Arfoire was still talking to her. In the back of her mind, Neptune realized that. What Arfoire was saying was probably important and Neptune should probably be listening to it. Neptune understood this, but she just couldn't. What she had just heard a few moments ago was just too much for her, and she couldn't focus on anything else but that... fact. That horrible horrible horrible fact.

Obviously, she had to accept it as fact, first and foremost. Arfoire, at least this Arfoire, had no reason to lie to her. All of her actions, creepy and unnerving and confusing as they had been, were not the actions of a liar. She was leaving details out, Neptune could tell that much, but if Arfoire wanted to really manipulate or harm Neptune, she would have done it already. If anything, adding up all of Arfoire's actions until this point...

There was only one answer.

Arfoire had probably been friends with this world's Neptune. That would explain everything. The odd kindness being exhibited towards her, all those strange reactions throughout their conversation, and most of all, how invested Arfoire seemed to be in the Planeptune situation... whatever it was.

Maybe trusting Arfoire would come back to bite her later (or maybe it wouldn't), but right at this very moment, she had no reason not to and every reason to do so. And that meant one thing and one horrible thing only, and that was something she couldn't stop thinking about now that it was known to her.

In this world, Nepgear had killed her.

Her sweet, innocent, kind hearted, occasionally robosexual, doting, loving sister... She hadn't just killed someone, which in itself was a horrible thing to consider, no, she had killed _her_.

Neptune thought back to when Nepgear had come for her in the Gamindustri Graveyard. That had been such a happy reunion, and she had been so... so _proud_ of Nepgear in that moment. It was one of the happiest moments of her life, seeing Nepgear again. She had grown up so much. She had even become the main character in Neptune's absence! She had gotten a whole bunch of friends and had gone on adventures and...

O-Okay... Sure, Neptune had teased her about it for a while... well, more like ten years worth of a while in the other Gamindustri, but they had moved past that, hadn't they? She had even been working on making up for it, hadn't she? They had gone to the amusement park together, had sleepovers together, played games together... They were okay now, right?

Sure, so Neptune often had had Nepgear wait in line for them while she did something else... And so maybe she still had Nepgear do the cooking during their sleepovers... Plus it seemed like Nepgear lost an awful lot more than she should when they played games together, but... But that wasn't enough to kill over, was it...?

... Was it?

Neptune wasn't sure when she had started shaking or when she had fallen to the ground, but at some point it seemed she had. She was too wrapped up in her thoughts, and the sudden guilt this new information had brought on, to focus much on anything else.

It wasn't her fault, was it?

No, that didn't make sense. Her Nepgear was a total pushover when it came to her- Oh no, she was doing it again! No wonder Nepgear had killed her!

Well... Not her Nepgear and not her, but... How different could they really be?

As if it had been planned, the answer to this question appeared right before Neptune's very eyes.

"Kid!"

Suddenly feeling a violent shake to her body, Neptune looked up like a deer caught in the headlights. A quick look at her surroundings and the sky (or rather, the sun's position in the sky) told her she'd actually only been zoned out for a minute or two, if that much. It had seemed like an eternity to her. That was how shock worked, she supposed. She had never really cared to think about it before and she wasn't going to start now.

And there, answering her question, was Arfoire. Kneeling down, hands on Neptune's shoulders. She seemed to be the source of the minor earthquake that had brought Neptune back to reality... And what's more, that face of hers was showing concern again. Just the kind of creepy wake up call Neptune needed.

If this world's Arfoire could act like this towards her, then surely the Neptune and Nepgear here were different too. If they were, that meant that this had nothing to do with Neptune. It just didn't.

She wished she could believe that so easily.

"Kid, what is it? Was I too rough?" Not just concerned, Arfoire looked upset. Guilty too. Maybe she thought Neptune had fallen over because of that earlier "precaution" of hers? If that was the case, Neptune could go along with that. She needed some time to figure out what her next move would be anyway. "Let's get you back inside... Just stay here for a minute first, I need to make sure they haven't decided you're going to run us out of here or something before I bring you back in."

"Not really planning on going anywhere anyway, Arfy," Neptune offered some joking words to the woman, showing her a weak smile in the hopes it would... put her mind at ease? Send her off faster? Neptune wasn't sure yet, it just felt like the natural thing to do. Her mind was spinning, her body hurt all over, and now she felt sick knowing what kind of place she had landed herself in this time.

"Not like you have a choice, huh?" Arfoire seemed to find that funny. She was even smirking. That actually got a rise out of Neptune, but just as she was going to snap at the mean old witch, said mean old witch took her off guard. "You'll be glad to know the item shop in town will be getting a shipment in tomorrow. I was just coming back from there to see if they had anything I could give you, but they didn't. Well, you know how it..." Arfoire paused, looking at the dumbfounded look on Neptune's face. "Or maybe you don't. The point is you just have one more day to feel like crap."

That... That was good! Finally, the first piece of good news that she had gotten since she'd woken up in this stupid place!

And she was getting the feeling she'd need all the good news she could get too.

"I guess I owe you one, huh...?" Neptune smiled awkwardly at Arfoire, who in turn smirked down at the CPU. Neptune was initially comforted at the familiarity of it... then realized she really didn't like what it probably meant for her future. Who knew what this Arfoire might want from her?

"You owe me a hell of a lot more than 'one.' Keep that in mind if you ever think about breaking those rules."

With that, Arfoire stepped away and headed into the farmhouse, presumably to tell the rest of the people living there that Neptune wasn't a CPU (Neptune still didn't understand why that would be bad, but given what she already knew this far, she could go along with it for now) and that she would be staying. That left Neptune alone with herself and her thoughts, alone for what seemed like the first time in ages, ignoring her brief zoning out a few moments ago. Now she could think about what Arfoire said without getting so emotional about it.

Still, speaking of that farmer, she couldn't believe what Arfoire had just said! All she had to do was follow those rules and her debt was repaid? What kind of saint was this woman?

Not that Neptune was going to complain. For now, it was time to think. She had never been the highest score on the leader boards, but she could still figure things out if she needed to. And boy did this situation require some figuring...

"So I'm dead and Nep Jr. is... like that." Neptune honestly wasn't sure what she should feel about that. She had decided, thanks again to Arfoire, that this world's versions of everyone were different enough that she couldn't and shouldn't expect the people she knew to be similar. To figure this out, though, she needed to figure out who was around. She needed to know who she could go to, who she could seek help from, who was friendly and in power, things like that.

She needed more than Arfoire.

It wasn't just that this Arfoire was creeping her out. Neptune was quick to adapt, and skeevy as this whole "nice Arfoire" situation was, she was already getting used to it. No, the problem that having just Arfoire on her side was much larger than that. Before, she had had a bunch of CPUs on her side and it still had taken over ten years to get home. What in the world could she accomplish with a farmer and her staff?

Neptune was at a loss.

There was no way any other nation's CPU would want to help her. That rarely happened even in the two worlds she did know, so it likely never happened in this one. Besides, there would be nothing to gain. At least before the other CPUs had sort of liked her and, more importantly, really liked Plutia. Of course, there wasn't going to be an easy way out like that this time: if she went anywhere near Planeptune, if this world's Nepgear really was as bad as Arfoire said, then she would just be painting a big target on herself.

After a few more moments of this, Neptune let out a sigh. This was why she hated thinking. It never did her any good! So she had figured out all the things she couldn't do, but what was something she could?

Neptune glanced at the door to the farmhouse. No one was yelling, but no one had come back for her either. Arfoire must still be convincing them that she was okay and her staying wouldn't be bad. Arfoire really was looking out for her, wasn't she...? Neptune's mind wandered back to the rules Arfoire had given her, how Arfoire wanted nothing in return for all her help except for Neptune to obey those rules, and that's when it hit her.

"Wa-Wait a minute!"

As if a lightbulb had just been flipped on in Neptune's head, her eyes widened considerably as an almost comically loud gasp escaped her lips.

How could she have missed something so obvious?!

If she couldn't transform, couldn't talk about Planeptune, couldn't let anyone know she was a CPU, and couldn't even walk around with her face exposed... What exactly was Arfoire expecting of her? What could she do to try to get home? She couldn't just live out the rest of her life here!

"Maybe she hasn't thought that far ahead," Neptune reasoned with herself, completely aware at how absurd this situation was. Here she was, defending Arfoire and giving her the benefit of the doubt? If the others could see her now. "I mean, those rules do seen like they're meant to keep me safe, so maybe she just meant them like... as a temporary thing? Or... more as a guideline?"

It was certainly possible that Arfoire, who was obviously much more knowledgable of this world than Neptune, was simply giving Neptune rules to follow if she wanted to stay out of trouble (maybe even alive) and if she wanted Arfoire's continued assistance... in whatever Arfoire planned on assisting her with. That wasn't really clear yet. Not that it was probably important. Probably farmer stuff or something else that was not important at all.

That was the thing though.

How the heck was she gonna get home if she didn't get into trouble? Sure, she could try waiting it out again, but this place wasn't nearly as welcoming as the other world had been, and...

And she wanted to see Nepgear. She had some making up to do.

Real making up to do, that is.

"I... I need to go home."

And yet... On the subject of Nepgear, there was something else she wanted to do. Something here. Maybe not now, maybe not later even, but... If this world's Neptune had failed her Nepgear, didn't she owe it to her other self to try to fix the situation somehow?

Taking a shaky step forward, Neptune looked down the path ahead of her, coming to a decision.

She'd stick with Arfoire until she was fixed up, then they'd have no choice but to go their separate ways. It's not like Arfoire seemed to be too keen on her breaking those rules of hers, and Neptune just couldn't imagine how she'd get anything done hiding herself like that if Arfoire was so intent on hiding her away. Whatever Arfoire intended on helping her with probably wasn't going to do her that much good in the long run anyway.

It just... It couldn't be, right?

Why would Arfoire care that much about her?

At long last, a voice from the farmhouse brought Neptune out of her plotting.

"Okay kid, you can come back in!"

Neptune glanced towards the door. That was Arfoire... That scheming schemer!

"I'm on to you, Old McWitchy..." Neptune muttered to herself as she made her way back into the farmhouse.

The fact that Arfoire might have explicitly meant she was planning to help Neptune go home and do whatever it was she needed or wanted to do while in this world, unfortunately, was something that Neptune didn't even consider as a possibility.


	6. Chapter 6

After a moment more of consideration, Neptune walked back into the farmhouse to return to her temporary caretaker. She wasn't sure what to expect, but given Underling's reaction to the CPU thing combined with Arfoire's rules, she had a feeling that she wasn't going to be able to be honest around these people.

Of course, seeing as Neptune had decided that she would be leaving soon, she supposed it didn't matter much if she had to go along with whatever lie Arfoire told for the night and however long it took to get to the item shop tomorrow. She could play the role of the sneaky one if she had to! Then it was off to... somewhere, and then off to fixing things with this world's Nepgear and heading home!

... Yeah, like it would be that easy.

Okay, so her plan sucked right now. She still had until tomorrow!

She took the steps up to the front door one at a time. She hadn't noticed them before, but that was probably because of the whole being thrown out thing. Just thinking about it made her wince, but at least it would all be over come tomorrow. As Neptune reached the top stair and lifted her head to look inside the open door, she was greeted by a rather surprising sight.

"Uh... Hey."

It was the same girl that had thrown her out.

And boy did she look embarrassed.

Neptune raised a curious brow, a grin threatening to spread across her lips as she looked over the girl. She was shifting from one foot to the other, wringing her hands together, and to top it off, her eyes were downcast. It was the kind of thing she never imagined she would see this girl do, yet here she was... and she was doing it for her, Neptune, no less!

Oh, if only she had a camera!

"Hey yourself," Neptune replied casually, trying to hide her amusement as the other girl's predicament. Whatever Arfoire said to her must have really done a number on her attitude, because it was like looking at a different person, and that was saying something since she had already been acting like a different person. Finally not being able to help it, Neptune grinned slyly. "Are you coming to grovel?"

That did it. Gone was the apologetic look and there was the aggravated look that Neptune had come to know and subsequently forget on regular intervals. Not as well as Nepgear, of course, but still.

"You... You...!" The girl clenched her fist, and Neptune tensed up, waiting for the fists to start flying. Maybe she shouldn't have started pushing buttons just yet?

Neptune raised her hands, prepared to try to ward off any incoming attack with done kind of excuse, when the girl dropped all pretense of annoyance and ran a hand through her short hair.

"You... totally have the right to treat me like shit after what I did. Arfo... I mean, the boss filled me in." Neptune could only stare. Once again she looked apologetic and guilty, but on top of that she was looking downcast once more and... and she was blushing! Holy guacamole! Neptune let her cocky grin fade somewhat, opting instead to put her hands on her hips.

"O-Oh, uhhh... Don't worry about it, uh... you!" She couldn't very well rub it in the girl's face like this. There'd be no fun in it, and if she pushed too hard, she'd probably get hurt again anyway. "So she told you... eeeeeeverything, huh?"

The girl nodded.

"Yeah... And I mean shit, I already knew some of it..." The girl shifted awkwardly, stuffing her hands into her pockets. "With all the injuries you had, it's no wonder you've got your head all messed up and confused." Neptune dearly wished she had been drinking at that moment, just so she could have done a spittake. "What kinda prick just throws a hurting person out like that? Especially one with their head all messed up?" The girl really did look guilty, perhaps even more than she should have as she believed a lie. As she raised her head to look at Neptune, the CPU smiled nervously and glanced away. What now? "I'm Linda, by the way."

"Saturn," Neptune responded instantly, a "fake" name just... popping into her head, and not a moment later she already regretted it. What if Arfoire had already come up with a fake name for her? Then she'd be in for it...! Quick, topic change! "And, uh, yeah, hahaha! I sure am beat up, huh?" Neptune flashed a more genuine smile, partly because it was just how she was, but also so Under- so Linda wouldn't get all icky at her again. "Don't worry about it though, I get over stuff quickly."

"Saturn, huh...?" the girl seemed to be registering this name. Moment of truth: Had Arfoire already given her a name that she'd just contradicted? When Linda grinned, jabbing a thumb towards herself, Neptune supposed not. "Sounds good to me! You ever need somethin', just come for me, okay Saturn? I'm your gal."

Neptune was taken aback. Who knew Und- Linda could be so nice?

"After all, since the boss seems to like you so much, if I get in good with you, I might get a raise! Hahaha!"

... Nah. Same old Underling after all.

* * *

Slam.

The sound of the door closing behind her echoed throughout the metallic building, but she had become used to such annoyances. This area had once been a large hall for gatherings, but as no one ever gathered anymore, after taking down some of the surrounding walls for more room, she had since turned it into her lab.

One lab of many, anyway.

She surveyed the room, a look of disinterest crossing her pretty features. Deep purple eyes scanned over discarded machines and other abandoned projects. She hadn't been here in at least a year. It showed. The lab had fallen apart thanks to lack of attention. Or maybe it had been like this when she had abandoned it.

Not that this concerned her any. This place only served to remind her of her failures, and worse, of the past.

She hated thinking about the past.

The only reason she was here was that she had misplaced something. The chances of it being in this particular lab were astronomically low, but she was never one to give up on something just because the odds were against her. She had only gotten to where she was today because she had stopped letting herself be walked on and mistreated and, instead, taken chances, after all.

She clenched the side of her lab coat with a hand, a look of frustration crossing her features. She had only been here a moment and she was already reminiscing. Enough of that.

She would take care of her business here and leave.

Her movements were confident. As she walked through the lab, she looked all around her. She suspected, if it was here at all, it would be at her primary work station. Her footsteps echoed all around her, accented by her boots, but she paid the noise no mind. She was used to only having echoes off the walls for company. This was nothing new.

"Ma...ster... You came..."

That was a surprise. She glanced in the direction of the voice, an eyebrow raised. Once her eyes landed on the source, she furrowed both eyebrows in disappointment.

It was an old project of hers. Very old, in fact, from before she had started taking chances with her life. It was as if a physical reminder of life from before everything had changed had just... spoken up. As if the past just needed to rear it's head at her like this, because living here and being in this lab wasn't bad enough already.

She knelt down before it and gently picked it up with both of her gloved hands. It was small, able to sit comfortably in her hands with no problem, and it stared up at her with bright, adoring eyes, like a small child or animal.

The poor thing had no idea.

"I knew... you would come..."

She offered a smile. It didn't know her at all.

It happened in less than a minute. A pillar of swirling blackness encased her, and where the petite figure had stood moments ago, there was something... else.

Still holding the small robot in her hands, she shifted it to just one. Her hands were no longer gloved. They had taken the form of gleaming metallic claws, perhaps simply a different type of glove or perhaps new hands entirely, barely any bigger than her hands had been moments ago.

Her smile became broad and twisted and her eyes went wide, a mad sort of fury shining in them.

That horrific sight was the last thing the poor little robot saw as it was effortlessly crushed in her hand.

"Now then... Where was I?"

Feeling considerably better than she had been prior to entering the lab, she continued her search. It wasn't exactly important, the thing she was looking for, but she hated having to replace what she didn't have to. She absolutely hated when things were ignored and looked over and passed on and neglected and cast aside and abandoned and forgotten and underestimated for whatever reason. If something could be used, she would use it.

She wasn't like them.

Having transformed, she no longer had a need for walking. Instead, she opted to float through her lab. Hopefully this alternative means of transportation would allow her to finish this up without unearthing any more unwanted memories.

Maybe she should just destroy everything in this room and just take the parts. Having something like this around... She didn't like it.

At long last, though it hasn't truly been very long at all, she arrived at her desk. Besides for being covered in a thick coat of dust and cobwebs, there wasn't much to be seen or gained here. Another failure.

Still, she might as well check the drawers while she was here. See if anything useful remained, though she sincerely doubted anything would pique her interest. If nothing else, a thorough search like that would mean she wouldn't need to come back here for at least another year, if not longer.

She lowered herself to the ground and, with a surprising amount of gentleness given her current form's hands, began searching through the desk's inner lairs.

The first two drawers proved fruitless. Writing utensils and notepads filled with the ambitions of another life. They would be burned.

The third drawer was empty. She recalled emptying it out long ago, just before this lab stopped seeing use. She couldn't remember what had made her do such a thing, though...

The fourth drawer was, of course, a waste of time. Though larger than the rest, it merely contained tools that she no longer had any need for. It was one thing not to use something that could still be useful, but these...

A scowl settled on her face as she slammed the drawer closed, ignoring the echo. Thoughts and memories had once again been coming, unbidden as they were. She needed to leave. There was nothing for her here.

As she began to straighten up to go, something caught her eye. Underneath where the last drawer had been open was a stack of papers and other things. They appeared to be the contents of the third drawer that she had knocked onto the floor once upon a time. She gently reached down and picked the stack up, idly flipping through it.

Towards the center, she froze. Her eyes widened. Her breath caught in her throat.

Nestled between two pages was an old picture. A group of people of all sizes were looking at the camera, but that wasn't what caught her attention. It was the pair in the center of it all.

Though older, the first one was in fact the smaller of the two. She had a calm sort of look on her face, but there was more to it than that. She was full of confidence, as always. She gave away no weakness with that posture or expression or... Anything. She was always the center of everything. All the other people in the picture around the pair only cares about her. One of them even had their hand ruffling the small one's hair. That happiness was forever frozen in time with this picture.

Everyone had been just... so happy with her.

On the other hand, there, next to the first one, somewhat taller, was the younger of the two. Her hair was sticking out in places, she had likely been in a rush to fix it before the picture. She had failed. She had failed often back then. Despite how she physically was larger than the older one next to her, her posture and expression gave a very different story. Anxious. Repressed. Angry. Small. And no one had been paying attention to her. Despite how she was clearly larger, to the group in the picture, she was as small as small could be, and that was saying something.

She had been the smallest of all...

... Had been, anyway. Now she was the biggest one of all. Wasn't she?

Looking at this picture brought up more memories than anything else she had encountered in the room possibly could have. For a moment, she stared, taking in this little piece of history that she had discovered. There would never be another picture like this.

Without warning, she closed her hand on the picture, her metal claw shredding it as she made a fist. She was shaking.

"Damn you!"

A slam on the desk.

"Damn you!"

Another.

"Damn you! Damn you! Damn you damn you damn you damn you-"

With every curse, she pounded on the desk harder and harder, until finally-

"Damn you!"

The desk broke right down the middle.

Panting, she stood as another spiral of energy engulfed her. As it faded, she was in her previous form. Panting. Sweating. Shaking.

She slowly raised her hand to her face, opening it. Little pieces of the picture fell out of her opened hand and began sprinkling down into the ground, like snow.

As she stood there, catching her breath, soon the lab returned to silence.

And silent it would remain for quite a while still.

* * *

It had taken a fair bit of effort to convince Arfoire to let her come along to town and even more effort to make it so it was just the two of them going for the trip. Arfoire had been adamant in wanting Neptune to stay at the farm, out of sight and out of trouble, but Neptune would have nothing of it. She was sick and tired of hurting and being stuck in one place, and if it meant a long walk to town to get past that, so be it!

Now here they were, heading to town... wherever that was. Neptune in her mouse hoodie (which she was annoyingly starting to get attached to, something Linda had teased her about for most of the night until Neptune laid a guilt trip on her to get her to back off) and Arfoire in some sort of witch outfit, albeit a more conservative one that Neptune was typically used to seeing her in. It was kind of odd, but this Arfoire was odd too, so it worked, she supposed.

The path wasn't much different than it had been at the farm, just less eggplants and farm animals now, while seeming to closer to the ocean the more they went. Apparently they were in some backwater part of Cruptindustri, a little nook safe away from... whatever it was that wasn't safe in this world. Neptune still didn't know and she was really starting to wish someone would at least have the decency to give her a world map. If no one was going to be nice and summarize the plot for her (and she sure as heck wasn't seeking out a history book), at least a map could help answer a few of her questions.

Speaking of those questions... Maybe there was one that her new bestest buddy (hah!) would be willing to answer. No harm trying, right?

"So, Arfy, how'd you find me anyway? You weren't really too clear on that." It had actually been bugging Neptune for a while now. The witchy wonder hadn't exactly given her many details during their... "conversation" the day before, and afterwards, there had been too many other people around for Neptune to get Arfoire alone to ask. "Did I really just land on your doorstep? I mean, that sounds like something a stork would do!"

Neptune laughed at her own little joke, stupid as it was, while Arfoire just sighed.

"That basically sums it up," Arfoire pinched the bridge of her nose, wondering how anyone in this girl's world could possibly put up with her all the time. "You were a real mess though. Didn't think you were going to make it there, at least not at first."

Neptune stared up at Arfoire as if she were speaking in tongues. After all, what could have possibly done so much to her that she would be in that kind of condition? She was a goddess for crying out loud!

"And no, I didn't do it."

Neptune blinked at Arfoire's sudden words, before grinning slyly and playfully nudging the woman in the side with her elbow.

"What's this? Is my little Arfy worried that I might be doubting her?" Neptune put a hand in front of her mouth and made an "ohoho" sort of laugh. "Relax! I'm totally over that. You said you didn't do it and I believe you. Besides, you probably couldn't beat me up anyway."

Arfoire raised an eyebrow at that, a smirk growing on her face.

"Oh? Do you want to test that out once you're all healed up?" The woman suddenly seemed very dangerous. Probably because Neptune was still hurting. That was it.

"Nononono, I'm good!" Neptune even added a little salute to show just how serious she was, which seemed to appease the woman, as she turned back towards the path.

Once again, they trudged on in silence. Neptune hated silence.

But more importantly...

"That's really not good though..."

Arfoire raised an eyebrow and glanced in the direction of the kid CPU she was traveling with. It was the first time (at least in this form) she had looked serious like that. It... It bugged her. She didn't like it.

"What's not good?" Arfoire only took a moment in considering whether or not to ask. It very well could have been the setup for another prank, after all.

Seeing Neptune's weak grin, she realized that it wasn't.

"S'just... What the heck hurt me so badly?" Neptune had never felt so helpless before. Normally she could pop open her inventory or go home and be as good as new right away. Having to deal with the damage like this, having to sit with how badly she had been hurt...

Something (or someone) had done a number on her. That normally just wasn't possible.

Seeing Neptune looking so... Well, not like how this Neptune acted, Arfoire tentatively placed her hand on the CPU's head.

"Don't think too much about it, kid. I've got your back."

Neptune, genuinely surprised by this action, glanced up towards Arfoire. The woman wasn't looking at her, clearly on purpose in fact, but even so... It made Neptune feel just a little bit guilty for planning on ditching her at some point later today. She really wasn't that bad at all, was she?

Neptune grinned. She might as well humor her, then, since she'd be pulling such a nasty stunt on her later anyway. It wasn't like she actually cared what this Arfoire thought or anything. She was just playing along until she could get away. Really.

"Thanks."

At least that's what she kept telling herself.


	7. Chapter 7

Neptune hadn't had any idea what to expect of "town." She hadn't asked and Arfoire hadn't offered anything. Most of her experiences with populated areas in the first alternate world she had visited had been visiting the capitals of each nation every so often, and even then most of the time she was just lazing around Planeptune. Rarely, if ever, had she gone into the cities and towns. They had been normal enough, if a bit outdated, when she had gone, so she figured this would be the same, more or less.

Before Neptune saw the place, she heard it. She wasn't sure what to make of it, because it was a very... basic sound. It didn't tell her what kind of town it was or anything about its people. Upon glancing up to Arfoire, as if to assess her reaction and make sure the sound was normal, Neptune continued on, her curiosity steadily increasing as the sounds continued to increase.

Seagulls. There must have been tons of then to be making such a ruckus, and what's more, judging by Arfoire's reaction, that was totally normal! What kind of crazy town was this that they were approaching...?!

The first thing Neptune realized when she finally saw the town was that there wasn't anything grand about it or its entrance. The path just kept going, and eventually, she started to see more up ahead than just more path. Some buildings started to come into view. It was still a way's off, but at least there were shapes now.

Though neither of them said anything, as if the sight of civilization willed them to do so, their pace began to increase. Even with all Neptune's aches and pains, which had been taking their toll on her throughout this walk, she couldn't help but be pleased.

"That's it, right? Right, Arfy?" Neptune was hopeful, eager. She was filling with anticipation already. She was an item shop away from at least one of her major problems being solved, and she sure as heck wasn't gonna hide her excitement. Maybe they'd have some maps or something! Or... Or a TV! Something, anything, that she could use to get some information!

"What else would it be?" Arfoire didn't share Neptune's enthusiasm, but her voice did seem to have a sense of satisfaction to it at least. After all, once this runt was taken care of, then they could really get down to... whatever it was they needed to get down to. Arfoire was waiting on assessing the kid in full health before she made her plans concrete, but unbeknownst to Neptune, Anonydeath back at the farm was already hard at work for the two of them. "I wouldn't expect much though."

"Awww, why's that? Did Gamindustri just sound super awesome that this place doesn't compare?" Neptune asked teasingly. Egging on Arfoire was kind of fun when it didn't turn into brawls. Though to be fair, egging most anybody on was fun. It was partly why Neptune was so silly all the time.

To her surprise, Arfoire didn't get pissy. Instead...

"That about sums it up, kid. Try not to make a scene about it when we get this."

Well that was a bust.

"Um... It can't be that bad! I'm sure you're just being humble!" Neptune scratched the back of her neck, laughing weakly. She didn't feel bad exactly, but she didn't want to make Arfoire feel any worse than she was already going to with the whole leaving thing. "What happened to 'number one farmer in Cruptindustri,' huh?"

"So you remembered," Arfoire looked amused for a moment, closing her eyes as a smirk grew on her face. "Damn right I am. The business I bring in here is what keeps this place so well off, too."

"No kidding?" Neptune smiled at that, getting curious now. She recalled seeing a stack of flyers back at the farm promoting the place and their stuff, did this mean they had a store here or something? Oh man, she bet it had a huge eggplant mascot! At that, Neptune couldn't help but shudder. "I didn't realize eggplants could be such a big deal..."

"People gotta eat."

"I guess..."

Still! They were gross and icky and-

"Look! Buildings!"

Neptune couldn't help it. She knew she'd pay for it, but she started to run. After all, in just a few minutes, she'd be all fixed up without a care in the world! Who wouldn't start running when they saw the light at the end of the tunnel?

And forming that light was this: The vague shapes of buildings had finally taken proper form now. She could identify things, see things further off in the distance, and get a clear picture for what kind of town she was heading into. She picked up the pace, wanting more and more to not only be healed, but to get some information!

The first bit of information she got wasn't the best.

Arfoire had not been kidding.

Off to the side was the ocean. There wasn't a beach though, oh no. Even from this distance, the water looked sick, though Neptune couldn't quite describe just how. The seagulls she had heard were all flying around some docks, which seemed to go on and on and on. This must be some kind of port town, then, though the boats... didn't exactly paint the picture of safety. More like old and rickety and just waiting to be busted in the opening scene of a monster movie as some great lizard emerged from the depths.

Maybe the town itself would be better?

Looking at it, Neptune decided that the town wasn't much better at all. Buildings that looked like they were falling apart were what greeted her (a far cry from the well cared for farmhouse) first. They were at least shapely enough. Some were small, some were tall, and others wide while others thin. It meant people, if nothing else, and people meant answers.

... At least it might have if all the people didn't look so...

What could even describe this?

They were dirty, for starters. Going about their day, doing whatever it was they normally did. Neptune could hear the sounds of a loud argument coming from one of the buildings, but the words didn't seem important right now. The people looked underfed, too. Arfoire had said she did business here, but this certainly didn't look like any place that was doing regular business with a huge farm.

This was just so... so wrong.

And yet, strangely enough... The most off putting thing of all...

Of the people Neptune could see, they looked... They looked relatively happy. No, not relatively. They were happy. She had seen more frustrated and angry people in her utopian Planeptune on a daily basis (mostly on the Internet since those types rarely left home, but still) than she saw before her right now, complaining about one thing or another.

What was going on here?

"Don't run off like that." Neptune jumped as she felt Arfoire's hand come down on her shoulder. She had been so taken in by the sights that she had momentarily forgotten herself. She didn't have more time for surprise though, as she became somewhat flustered as Arfoire fixed her hood so that her face was hidden, as it had fallen off her head when she ran. "And keep this on. We don't need any problems."

"It couldn't be that bad..." Neptune grumbled half-heartedly, crossing her arms and glancing away as Arfoire walked ahead of her. Assuming she was to follow, Neptune slowly fell into pace behind her. "Anyway... Are all towns like this?"

"Like what?" Arfoire glanced behind her, a brow raised. Evidently she didn't understand Neptune's question, which in itself was probably an answer. Neptune simply gestured to the buildings, to the people, to the... everything. It took a moment, but Arfoire caught on, and when she did, she stopped in her tracks, turning around.

"W-What? I say somethin' wrong?" Neptune was attempting to sound defiant, but the look Arfoire was giving her told her she might want to back off. At least until she was healed anyway. Yeah, that was it...

"This is how it is outside the main nations." Arfoire made similar gestures to the ones Neptune had. A broken down library. A school devoid of life. A run down general store. "It's what some people choose so they can keep their freedom."

"Their freedom...?" Neptune tilted her head, having no idea what Arfoire was talking about. Why would people who lived in the nations not have that? If they weren't getting it, wouldn't the CPU in question have like... no shares? "I don't-"

"Come on, kid. They probably didn't get much, and the shop keeper tends to make deals with anyone if the price is right. I had to call in a favor for this."

Why did that sound familiar...? As Neptune stopped to ponder this, Arfoire began heading towards a certain building in particular. This one looked less run down than the others, and it even had a familiar mascot on its logo. Neptune stared, watching Arfoire greet the various people on her way, and every one seemed thrilled to see her. She sure was popular...

... Oh, wait! She needed to go too!

"Arfyyyuy! Wait for meeeee!"

Neptune dashed after the witch, much to the displeasure of her aching body. Halfway to the store, however, her foot got caught in the gravel road that made up the town's main street, and she fell. She crashed to the ground, making a splash of pebbles around her, much to the surprise of the townspeople. Though some tried to approach, Neptune weakly raised a hand to stop them. No attention, remember?

"Ow ow ow ow ow..." Neptune groaned. She laid there for a moment. Arfoire had already gone inside, so that just left her and whoever was out here. Luckily she was in her "disguise," but for a brief moment, Neptune wanted to just... scream.

"What do you mean it didn't come?!"

Oh hey, someone was doing it for her.

Shaking, Neptune slowly got to her feet. She held a hand to her forehead, scowling as she pulled it away. Bleeding. Neato.

"Better see what Arfy's yelling about..." Neptune sighed, slowly finishing the walk to the item shop. She hurt more than ever, so she moved even more slowly and more quietly than usual. As she slunk into the item shop, the strangest sight she had seen yet played out before her very eyes.

The shop itself was fairly... barren. It was dusty in many areas and most shelves were empty. The magazine rack had clearly seen better days. The one thing they did have plenty of, Neptune realized, was stuff that must have come from Arfoire. Who knew?

And at the back she could see Arfoire in a heated argument with the person running the shop. At first, Neptune couldn't recognize them. After all, she hasn't recognized anyone here in this town so far, so why would that change here?

Brown hair, shoulder length, with dazzling brown eyes. Fairly tall with a bust that was just in the perfect zone, between Noire and Vert's, she wore a light blue dress that had yellow buttons going down the front. To top this odd outfit off, she had on white gloves and... a hat that...

Neptune's jaw slowly began sliding open as her ears finally started paying attention again.

"Gust is ever so sorry for th'trouble. The shipment hast never arrived. Gust hast heard rumor that t'was attacked en route, if that might be of some use. Many apologies, m'lady."

Neptune just... stared, gaping, as Arfoire turned away (furious) to leave the store. She raised a hand to point at the shopkeeper, who was waving back at her with a pleasant smile, but Arfoire paid Neptune (who at this point was wondering if she had just gone insane) no mind as she dragged the CPU out of the store.

This went on for a few moments, Arfoire dragging the comically stunned Neptune down the street, until the woman sat her down on a bench before following after herself, a weary frown spread across her features. She hadn't planned on this.

"W... W... Was that..."

Arfoire sighed as she turned to Neptune, who was clearly in shock from overhearing her and the shopkeeper's conversation. She supposed the girl was let down, knowing there weren't any items coming from Lowee in the near future. It would take time to get an order out to another nation, and who knew if they would go through with delivering for a little town so close to Lowee. Not to mention a long shipment like that was just as likely to be attacked...

"Yeah, it was right. There won't be-"

"Was that _Gust_?!"

"... What?"

* * *

She wasn't sure how long she had been watching the screens. Various streams of information flowed from them and into her mind, but at some point she had started to get... distracted. It wasn't like she was in any rush, of course. With how efficiently she ran things, she could take a break for a week if she wanted to.

But taking a break was as good as admitting she wasn't good enough as she was now. Breaks and rests and vacations and holidays and everything else that got in the way of importance were for the weak.

She wasn't weak.

She wasn't...!

A giggle interrupted her thoughts.

"Find what you were looking for?"

She shot a look in the direction of the newcomer, despite how she already knew who it was. There wasn't anyone else that she needed to accomplish her goals, after all, so there was never anyone else around. No one to waste her time.

"Yes... You hid it. This is the fourth time this week."

It wasn't a question or an accusation, merely a statement. She did sound rather aggravated about it. Her response was the tinkle of laughter.

"I wanted to play hide and seek with you. You never play with me anymore."

She sighed, turning away so she could focus once more on the screens. This earned her an exasperated sigh, and soon enough, she was alone again. Not that it mattered to her. Nothing could distract her from her work now. It was much too important, and everything had to be done perfectly.

"There was already one hiccup, but..."

Click. Click. Clatter clatter clatter. Click. Her hands flew across keys as she finally brought up a new page. At the very top was a horizontal bar, partway filled. Next to it read the percentage of how far it had come.

68%.

A smile began to spread across her lips.

It was all coming together.

* * *

"So... There's no items coming today."

"No."

"And it'll take at least a few days for the nearest nation to even get an order for more."

"Pretty much."

"And you expect me to wait?!"

Neptune leapt from the bench, jabbing a thumb at herself.

"That's not what I-" Arfoire's protests went unheard. Neptune had an idea in her head, and once that happened, there was no stopping her.

"Lowee is close, right? Then what're we waiting for?!" Neptune pointed towards the docks. "Let's hitch a ride on the S. !"

Arfoire watched Neptune for a moment, her expression going through strange motions again... But then suddenly and without warning, she thrust her arm out-

Neptune tensed, preparing for battle-

"You moron. You're going to run off and hitch a ride on a boat like this?"

Neptune blinked.

Arfoire was dabbing at the wound on Neptune's forehead with a cloth she had pulled out of nowhere, a wound which Neptune had completely forgotten about.

Ow! That stung!

"This could get infected if you don't watch it... You're really asking for it, you know that?"

For a brief moment, Neptune reconsidered her plan to ditch Arfoire...

She mentally shook her head.

No. She had to make a move if she wanted to actually get somewhere in this world.

She had to.

... But boy were the doubts starting to pile up...


	8. Chapter 8

Upon heading to the docks, Neptune found herself genuinely surprised at what she found. Even though a boat of supplies had been attacked on the way out of Lowee and towards the town, boats were still heading out towards the island nation like nothing had happened. She didn't get that. Weren't they worried? Even she would have at least suspected something, yet as it turned out, there was barely any wait for the next ferry.

"It's different. They don't mind taking, but sharing? That's something they can't stand. This way, they make people come to them and they get more out of it."

That was all Arfoire was willing to offer Neptune on the logic behind all of this, and it just didn't sit well with her. Wasn't that the complete opposite of what nations and CPUs were supposed to do? They were supposed to spread their stuff far and wide and all of that, not hog it! How would they win the hearts of the world if the world was afraid of being attacked for not already being a part of them?

Arfoire gave her some answer about fear being a powerful motivator, but Neptune didn't like it. It sounded like cheesy supervillain talk to her, and she (begrudgingly) liked to think this Arfoire was better than that.

"At least I can finally meet a CPU here..." Neptune mused, surveying the open sea below and before her. Her hands her placed firmly on the ferry boat's railing as she stood outside the cabin where the captain and most of the passengers were. She had let down her hood in order to feel the wind in her air, and despite how nasty it had felt when they had started off in town, the further out they went, the fresher things seemed. The water didn't look dirty anymore, and the air smelled so... clean now.

It was like a whole other world compared to that dinky old town, and this was just the ocean for crying out loud! Imagine what Lowee would be like...

As she thought that, the CPU found herself being struck by guilt. That "dinky old town" had been filled with nice, happy people. They didn't seem to mind it all that much and they lived there, but here she was, thrilled to be gone after only having been there for just a short while. That didn't say much about her, did it?

Neptune was torn. On the one hand, she was excited to get a dose of this world's "real world" and maybe get a better handle on this situation. She was excited to maybe see a familiar face and maybe start getting things done. But on the other hand? It really bothered her how the town was in such a mess. Was it really only because it wasn't tied down to a nation? Why was that? Neptune didn't understand, and she wanted to... And maybe, if she could, she wanted to help.

But could she? Should she? Didn't she want to leave?

Sighing, Neptune dropped her hands over the railing and let her chin rest on it. This was seriously too much decision making for her, and in way too short a time span to boot. She really hoped the punchline here wasn't going to be that this world was based on those "moral choice" mechanics that had been getting so popular lately. She didn't want to get gray skin and lose her hair if she accidentally chose evil!

As thoughts of broken systems and overdramatic and ridiculous choices between saving a puppy or pushing a grandma into traffic began to plague her, the ferry continued on towards Lowee without incident.

As Arfoire stood in the cabin's doorway, watching the CPU with a curious gaze, she felt an odd mixture of emotions. She was partly annoyed at how Neptune could be so foolish, but at the same time, she couldn't help but be secretly amused by it at the same time. She had never seen anything like it before. In a way, she thought that it was good that Neptune was still able to act this way. She had yet to be exposed to the truths of this world... and the truths Arfoire was keeping from her. Would she still be able to act this way once the dust settled? Or would Arfoire be forced to watch a second Neptune fall?

Arfoire shook her head. She didn't have an exact plan yet, admittedly, but she wasn't going to let anyone else fall on her watch. No matter what she had to do, no matter how many favors she had to call in to make it happen, she'd get this annoying brat home and she'd get her there in one piece too. Even if it killed her.

"Speaking of favors... Wonder how I can distract the kid so I can pay a visit to the Basilicom?" Arfoire mused to herself, closing her eyes and leaning against the frame of the doorway. She supposed this would be the first thing she could do, after she got Neptune some items at least, but her old "contact" in Lowee... probably wasn't going to be too helpful, knowing her. Arfoire shifted to her other side, sighing. "It'll have to do for now."

Arfoire's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the increasingly familiar sound of Neptune yelling her new nickname. What did this girl think she was, a dog?

"I can see it Arfy! There aren't snow or temples anywhere! It's amazing!"

Arfoire considered rolling her eyes as Neptune began excitedly pointing out in what ways this Lowee was "wrong," but she actually found it rather interesting. This was the only Lowee she had ever known, yet Neptune had known two, each with their own different CPU. Arfoire still found all of that surreal, in a way.

Neptune, on the other hand, was busy being taking in the landmass she saw before her. They would dock in just a few moments, and to make things even more convenient, the ferry landed right in the capital itself! She was kind of curious to see what the towns inside a nation looked like now that she'd seen one outside, but could she possibly complain about getting to go straight to the capital?

"I can't believe that's really Lowee though..."

It really was surprising. Instead of a traditional, homely, old timey sort of place like Plutia's world's Lowee and instead of a winter wonder land like her world's Lowee...

It was a tropical paradise!

For starters, in comparison to the docks they had left only a few hours prior, the docks up ahead looked well cared for, clean, made of strong and shining material, and were clearly well staffed. A line of boats surrounded where the ferry was headed on either side, and further off the bright shores of beaches could be seen. There were some boats out on the ocean, perhaps working or just enjoying this bright, sunshiny day, and even from here Neptune could make out people on the beaches.

And don't even get her started on the actual capital city!

Buildings of various shapes and sizes, all colorful, greeted her as she gazed beyond the ferry boat's railing. It looked like there were resorts and offices and even some a couple of theme parks all scattered about this tremendous paradise, and she couldn't imagine that the rest of the towns and cities of Lowee didn't at least try to hold up to this.

How could anyone possibly not want to live here?

* * *

Arfoire wasn't surprised that Neptune had been taken in by Lowee at a glance. Compared to everything else she had seen of Cruptindustri thus far, Lowee by far painted a much prettier picture. Were it not for the fact that Arfoire knew how things worked in this world, maybe she would be taken in too. Hell, once upon a time, she had thought life outside a nation wasn't life at all, but look at her now.

If she wanted to look at herself during this moment, if she wanted to be specific, she was leading Neptune down a sidewalk with far too much familiarity of Lowee's capital for a simple farmer. They had been walking for nearly an hour now, and not once had she given the impression that she didn't know where she was going. She did know, after all.

She supposed she'd have to come clean at some point soon, but she was... surprisingly enjoying this naturally progressing relationship that was forming between herself and the lost CPU more than she cared to admit. She suspected that the truth would, as it always did, spoil that.

At least in just a short while, Neptune would be healed. Armed too. That would be one worry off of Arfoire's back. Even if the truth came out and Neptune no longer wished to stay with her or accept her help, at least she wouldn't be as much of an easy target anymore.

Not that it would be hard to be picked off in Lowee right now. The streets weren't particularly crowded. The people seemed to be going about whatever their usual business might have been, though the few they passed seemed very wary of the two travelers. Neptune seemed not to notice (or care), but Arfoire took interest in this. It wasn't that it was expected for people to be out and about (quite the opposite), but right now it just seemed peculiar. Normally she could have just put it to how she hadn't been here in so long, that she had forgotten what it was like here, but wasn't there something else that had happened earlier to raise her suspicions...?

"Hey, Arfy? It's been bugging me for a while now, but if someone's out there attacking boats, why isn't anyone worried?"

Arfoire quirked a brow, looking down at Neptune. Boats with new shipments of supplies not making it to town was a pretty common occurrence. That was why Gust and the others in town hadn't been too upset: They were used to such treatment...

"Uhhh, Arfy? Hello?"

But wait a minute. If Lowee had been responsible for it, they would probably be expecting visitors. No, in fact, they most definitely would be expecting it. It was a common tactic. Force outsiders to have to come to the nation to get the things they couldn't live without, then show them a false version of the nation to get them to want to move and become part of it. Then, once they were in... They would have a hell of a time getting out.

"Earth to Arfy!"

So why weren't there citizens out trying to make Lowee look like an amazing place to live (not that they had a choice)? Where were the sales on everything that made the normally obscene prices worth it (not that they had a choice)?

Why were the people looking at the two of them like they shouldn't be...

"Okay, the next person who doesn't say anything is a big dumb-"

In a flash, Arfoire snapped her fingers, stopping in her tracks. The sudden action took Neptune by surprise, who had been quite sure Arfoire had been afflicted by the annoyingly horrible Deep Thought status ailment and had been trying to snap her out of it. Instead, she was the one to get snapped out of something, and she nearly plowed right into Arfoire.

"About time, Arfy! Finally gonna tell me what's been going on under that pointy hat of yours?" Neptune placed her hands on her hips, staring up at Arfoire defiantly. She had been taking in the sights all on her own so far, and she was starting to feel like she was a lone adventurer here. She didn't now how Falcom and NISA did it, but she was a girl who needed a healthy sized party. Preferably one that kept the info dumps flowing, albeit also to healthy summaries and NepNotes versions of them too.

Something Arfy hadn't been too helpful with yet...

"First, let's drop by the item shop. I don't want to do anything that would raise suspicions, and I want you ready in case something's going on." Arfoire wasn't looking at Neptune now. She was looking around, eyes darting back and forth in the hopes of discovering something out of the ordinary. A familiar sensation of panic was rising in her chest. What had started as something that was hopefully going to be simple was turning out to be... complicated. "Can you trust me?"

Neptune glanced away, pretending to look in the same direction Arfoire was looking in, to look for something that might be "going on" or... whatever Arfoire was worried about.

Could she trust Arfoire?

That was the question, wasn't it?

She was pretty sure she didn't trust Arfoire with getting her home. After all, Arfoire seemed to want to help her get better, but to what end? She hadn't made that clear at all. An obligation to a dead friend, maybe? The desire to have a potential new employee in her debt? Both? Something else entirely? The fact remained that Arfoire was definitely keeping things from her. Just how did she know this world's Neptune in the first place? Why was she so invested? And, given that she was going so far for Neptune, why couldn't she tell her the rest of the story?

Then there was how Arfoire had acted when Neptune had first revealed herself... Not to mention how she was acting right now as well.

To be blunt? The woman was just downright paranoid. If she had to guess, it had something to do with this world's Nepgear and how she had killed this world's Neptune, but that didn't exactly answer why it would make Arfoire so paranoid, it just raised more questions. It created more doubt.

What was going on in Arfoire's head? Why was she so freaked out? How had she been involved? What had happened...?

If Neptune wanted to get to the bottom of all of that, and more, and help this world's Nepgear on top of that... She couldn't see anything but conflict between her and Arfoire in the future.

And that wasn't even touching on the fact that, given Arfoire's apparent hesitancy towards helping Neptune home, Neptune had been keeping secrets of her own. She had been plotting to leave Arfoire as soon as she was able, to break out on her own and figure things out herself. She had been scheming to run off as soon as she could, maybe even without a real "thank you," so she could do what she felt she needed to do.

Could she really trust Arfoire like this?

... And yet...

She wondered how she would feel if things had been different. If this world hadn't been so bad. If the woman had been anyone other than Arfoire. If she hadn't needed help right off the bat.

Couldn't she talk things out with Arfoire when the time came? Once she was recovered, it wasn't like Arfoire could undo the healing. Neptune would be better and that would be the end of it. Even if Arfoire was ridiculously strong, which Neptune doubted, if Neptune wanted to go, could Arfoire really stop her?

And if it hadn't been Arfoire... Would Neptune even be doubting her at all? If it had been, say, an alternate dimension's version of IF dragging her along like this... Even though she would have just met that IF the same way she had just met this Arfoire, she would have definitely blindly trusted that IF out of familiarity, wouldn't she?

Neptune glanced towards Arfoire, who was still looking around the area as if she was expecting something to go wrong at any given moment.

She had taken Neptune in, helped Neptune recover, and was going to spend her own money to fix up and, in her words, arm Neptune. If she wanted to use or control or manipulate Neptune, she was either doing a really good job or a really bad job.

So...

Maybe...

Maybe, just maybe...

She could give this Arfoire a chance for a little while. A real chance. What could it hurt?

She was still going to leave when they were done with Lowee, of course.

Probably.

... Maybe they could talk about it, though?

Neptune nodded to herself, and that action caught Arfoire by surprise.

She still had her doubts, doubts she felt were certainly valid and within reason, but... The more she thought about it, the more she realized she had just as much reason to, at the very least, give Arfoire the benefit of the doubt too.

"Sure, Arfy. I trust ya." Neptune offered the woman a smile and a thumbs up. To her surprise, for a brief moment, Arfoire looked surprisingly emotional. Had she not been expecting that response? Or had the response reminded her of the other Neptune? If it was the latter... The two of them were gonna need to have a talk about differences in dimensions sometime. Later, though. For now, Neptune leaned forward and poked Arfoire. "Hey, Arfy? You okay? Not gonna start cryin' on me, are you? I know my devilishly good looks can bring people to tears, but I thought we were in a rush!"

That snapped Arfoire out of it. The woman snorted, a smirk on her face now, before turning on her heel and heading off down the street.

"Like your looks could impress anyone, kid. Come on, let's get moving."

Neptune puffed out her cheeks. She was drop dead gorgeous, thank you very much!

"You're just jealous that you don't look young and divine like I do!"

"Hah! Like I'd ever want to!"

* * *

Unbeknownst to the pair of travelers on the sidewalk, a single female figure had been tailing them for some time. Perched on top of a particularly high building, she was splayed out on the edge of the building, practically clinging to some sort of gun. A sparkling ruby eye peered diligently through the lens atop her weapon, which allowed her to see the ground below with startling accuracy. Her gaze was trained on the pair she had been following, and no matter where they went, her unwavering eye followed.

If she wanted to, a quick pull of the trigger could end the life of one, and before the other knew what was happening, they would follow.

That was just it... She didn't want to. Quite the opposite, in fact.

The appearance of the taller member of the pair didn't mean much on its own. While known for being extremely elusive, this nation was still relatively close to where she had supposedly settled down. That in mind, the tall woman might have a perfectly simple and mundane reason for coming here that wasn't out of the ordinary at all.

In fact, if the observer had to guess, her own actions this morning might have been just that very reason.

On her own, there was very little to be gained from the taller woman.

No... What interested the observer so much was the smaller person, along with the fact that of all the people in this glorious world of Cruptindustri, she was traveling specifically with the one that she was. She was clearly disguised, obviously trying not to draw attention to herself, but one close up look at her face had been all the observer needed to see.

It had been simple chance that she had seen the pair. She had been preparing for the next stage of her attack when, out of nowhere, the little one had bounded in the way of what she had been aiming at.

Some might have been frustrated at such a distraction, but this observer was a professional. If it had been a normal passerby, she would have paid it no mind... But all it had taken was one look, and any prior plans she had had seemed minor in comparison to finding out what was going on.

Now, the observer was quite the multitasker, and she had been theorizing and hypothesizing the entire time she had been tailing this odd pair, but nothing could explain it. Nothing could explain the absurdity of what she was witnessing, and it was absurd on far too many levels for it to be mere coincidence.

As the pair turned a corner, the observer leapt into action. Her weapon was gone in an instant, stashed away into her inventory with all of her other tools, and she was on the move once more. Though she had traveled to Lowee for her own purposes, she wanted to solve this mystery for a variety of reasons, some of which took much greater precedence to mere acts of terrorism and mutiny. Those could wait. She was patient.

Still... As she traveled to the next best location to watch from, she knew that she just didn't understand. This situation might require actual intervention on her part if she wanted to understand... But in making her presence known, all her other plans would go down the drain.

She would just have to keep observing and hope an explanation for this madness eventually presented itself.

If she set aside the issues and questions raised by the fact that she was witnessing someone she knew for a fact to be dead walking around as if nothing was wrong...

Why in the world would someone who had apparently cheated death be happily walking down the street with one of the people who had helped lead them to their untimely demise in the first place?


	9. Chapter 9

"So? How do you feel?"

Neptune's immediate thought was to say she was disappointed that the shopkeeper hadn't been someone else she knew, transformed into some crazy new form that was the complete opposite of how Neptune normally knew them. On the other hand, would anyone really be able to top Super Gust? It was probably for the best that the store's clerk had just been a timid teenager. It had been kinda cool that he had recognized Arfoire though. Apparently her stuff really was known all over...

"Ummmm... Better, I guess?" Neptune finally answered, glancing at Arfoire with a tilt of her head. Truth be told, she WAS thrilled to finally be all healed up again, but Arfoire hadn't just dropped a healing item in her hands and called it a day. She'd let Neptune pick out a new sword, nothing too fancy or expensive but still pretty nice, then proceeded to buy a bunch of items for both of them, and finally gave Neptune some money of her own. Just in case, she said. And there was something else that Neptune had realized after she had recovered all her HP that was distracting her... "Yeah, I'm better. It's just so weird... I was getting kinda used to being like that!"

But with Arfoire, it almost seemed like she was trying to get Neptune prepared for them being separated... Just what was she worried about? What did she think could happen?

"That's all? Are you really the same kid that's been following me around this whole time?" Arfoire put her hands on her hips, looking down at Neptune questioning it. The girl had practically been bouncing off the walls at the prospect at getting herself healed, but now that she was... This was the lackluster reaction she got? "What are you, a masochist?"

Now that got Neptune going.

"Hey, for your information, that's Tekken's thing, and I would never steal someone's thunder like that! ... Probably!" Neptune protested, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly and pointedly turning away from Arfoire. For good measure, she briefly turned around and stuck her tongue out at the witchy woman.

Arfoire shook her head. Well, at least that meant the CPU was doing okay. Perhaps she had taken Neptune off guard with her generosity? It's not like it wasn't anything she wouldn't have done before, not to mention it looked like they'd need to be ready for something to happen at any moment, but...

Of course. This Neptune had no idea. She had expected to get half a brownie and had been given a luxurious four layer cake instead.

No matter. If Arfoire understood anything about this strange otherworldly doppelgänger, it was that she didn't let things bother her. She'd get over it.

... Still...

She had a bad feeling.

"You still trust me?"

Even moreso than all of the gifts, Arfoire's question threw Neptune for a loop. Hadn't she just covered this in the last chapter? Had she already done something wrong?

Turning to face Arfoire, Neptune shot her a grin before giving her a playful shove. Doing that on the first day would have weirded her out, but y'know, she was getting used to this.

"Are you going deaf in your old age or something, Arfy? I told you already, didn't I?" Neptune winked, as if she was making some grand proclamation that Arfoire should feel lucky just to be able to have the chance to hear. "I trust you." A beat, and Neptune's expression turned decidedly more mischievous. "But if you keep bugging me, maybe I'll change my mind..."

"I get it, I get it. It's dropped." For now. Arfoire had a nagging feeling that at some point down the road, it was a conversation that would probably need to be revisited. Maybe, if she was lucky, she could figure out how to get Neptune out of here before it became an issue. For the moment though, Arfoire lowered her voice. She had bigger concerns now. "So, little miss CPU, how well do you think you could handle yourself in a fight right now?"

Neptune frowned. Arfoire obviously wasn't trying to get information for her own benefit, because she would probably just attack Neptune again if she wanted to. So... Was she really worried something was going on here?

"My level's dropped a little bit thanks to how I haven't been doing anything for a while, but I should still be able to kick a decent amount of butt. Why? You gonna tell me what's going on now?"

Neptune felt bad about it, but she had actually needed to tell Arfoire a teeny little bitty lie, in part because she herself still didn't know what was going on. She hadn't given herself a proper once over due to how injured she had been, but after looking at everything about herself with a more discerning eye that wasn't distracted by pain caused by the simplest movements, she had realized something was missing. A lot of somethings.

Her level hadn't just dropped a little bit, it had plummeted. She at least wasn't level 1 or anything like that, but this was kind of worrying. It normally would have taken years of screwing around doing nothing for that to happen (she would know). But it just... happening?

That didn't make sense.

At least she could fight though. She could get her strength back the (boring) old fashioned way, then burn it all off the (fun) old fashioned way when she got back home. No more amnesia or stuff she didn't understand.

"That's the plan..." Arfoire seemed to change. It was both subtle and drastic all at once. She straightened up, her eyes hardened, and she suddenly had this... air about her. Neptune couldn't quite describe it, but it just felt different. She hoped this wasn't really bad news. "We're going to need to find somewhere private."

"Arfy!" Neptune shrieked, unable to control her sense of humor despite the obvious change of mood in Arfoire. She covered her mouth with a hand and did her best shocked schoolgirl impression. "We haven't even gone on our first date yet!"

"Then we might as well start somewhere..." Arfoire growled, grabbing Neptune by the wrist and leading her away. Clearly she just didn't appreciate the comical stylings of Planeptune's very best!

... No, darn it, no, that wasn't right. Arfoire had no idea how things normally went with Neptune on her adventures. Maybe, juuuust maybe... That might not have been a good idea?

Ironically, as Arfoire led Neptune down the sidewalk once more, she was thinking the same thing.

Neptune had no idea how this world worked, and quite honestly, Arfoire, loathe as she was to admit it, wasn't just mystified by the girl's seemingly endless happiness and good mood, she found that it was spreading, like some kind of disease or a curse. It was endearing, in a way, and that frustrated her. As much as she wanted to help Neptune, to get her out of here before anything could happen to her... She would be lying if she said she wasn't enjoying it.

Getting to spend time with Neptune again... Seeing Neptune again... A small, selfish part of her didn't want Neptune to go. That part of her, of course, wasn't going to get in her way. She wouldn't pay it so much as a second glance. Neptune's safety came long before a measly farmer's regrets.

Neither were sure how long they had been walking, but at the very same moment, they both said the same thing to the other.

"Sorry."

They stopped. Looked at each other. Words weren't exchanged though, no. They just shared a look, and they got it. No need for prolonged drama or angst. The pair shared an awkward pair of smiles between the two of them, then Arfoire turned ahead once more.

"Ah hell... Seems quiet enough here. Not like it's anything these people don't know anyway. Just didn't want to get anyone in trouble if they overheard."

Neptune raised both eyebrows, mouth opening into a small "o" shape. This was it! Finally! The thing she had been waiting for!

At long last...!

Some exposition!

Arfoire leaned against a nearby light post, a sigh escaping her lips. Her back was to Neptune, which was probably for the best. While she looked tired all of a sudden, Neptune was almost sparkling in anticipation.

"Okay, remember what I said about the attack earlier? On the ferry?"

"On the ferry...?" Neptune tapped her chin with her finger as she thought back to the boat ride. Now what had Arfoire said? What was it...?

_"It's different. They don't mind taking, but sharing? That's something they can't stand. This way, they make people come to them and they get more out of it."_

"Oh yeah!" Like a little bunny, Neptune did an excited hop as she recalled Arfoire's words. "All that crazy supervillain stuff! I remember that! What, you think they found out Nep-Girl's secret identity and they're gonna attack the Nep-Cave now?!"

Arfoire rolled her eyes.

"If someone found out your identity, you'd have a lot more to worry about than a secret hideout, kid." Arfoire warned knowingly. She wished she could contact Anonydeath about all of this, but making a connection from Lowee to the farm, over a phone or the internet or anything, would most definitely do more harm than good. At least Arfoire thought so, and in thinking that, she and Neptune were on their own. "As typical as that situation normally is, I don't think that's what's going on here. That shipment wasn't just coming to that town, it was meant for the entire countryside. A lot of people would have been out necessary items, and a lot of people are probably on the way even now. So tell me..." Arfoire glanced behind her, gesturing to their surroundings. "Does this city look like it was expecting anyone?"

Neptune looked around, recalling how they had been received by Lowee's citizens so far. It had been weird, actually, and not just for the reasons Arfoire had mentioned. The few people they had run into had been jittery and skittish, like they were constantly on edge, constantly worried about something. They had clearly placed immediate distrust in herself and Arfoire just at a glance, and even the guy at the item shop seemed like he wanted them out of there as soon as possible. Neptune almost felt like this was how the people in the town should be acting and vice versa, yet the truth was right here before, wasn't it?

And as for Arfoire's question? Well, that was obvious.

"Unless there was a warning for a giant monster coming out of the ocean after all..." Neptune slumped her shoulders, sighing. "No, it doesn't." At which point she immediately perked up. "But what does that mean, Arfy? I thought you said that was how things worked here. Does that mean something else is going on?"

"It's only a guess, but I think so. The people of Lowee have to put up with a lot in order to 'earn' their right to live here." Arfoire crossed her arms, turning around to look at Neptune as she continued. "It's natural they would look forward to the influx of tourists and money that the 'attacks' would bring... Not to mention the punishment can be pretty severe for getting caught screwing up, though luckily, that's actually pretty rare thanks to the person who's supposed to deal out the punishments." At Neptune's confused look, Arfoire just made a face that seemed to say it wasn't important. "And usually, those 'attacks'? Most of the time, they're not really attacks. The boats just don't go in the first place if that's the decision."

Neptune found her brows creasing more and more as she listened. Whoever the CPU was here... Boy, did she have some choice words for them!

"I know what you're thinking." To Neptune's surprise, for a brief moment, Arfoire didn't look angry anymore. She was smiling softly, and as if against her will, she reached out to pat Neptune on the head again. "You... I mean, the other you... The two of you are as different as night and day, but I can see there's one thing you both share." Arfoire glanced away, now wearing that strange, forlorn look that always came up whenever the subject of the other Neptune arose. The woman withdrew her hand and closed her eyes, her voice soft. "She was a good one. Maybe the only one. She... Maybe it was because she was so good that it ended up the way it did."

For once, Neptune didn't feel right trying to lighten the mood with a light hearted gag. She wasn't sure what she should do, to tell the truth.

"Anyway." And just like that, without Neptune having to do anything, Arfoire was all business again. Neptune chose to push aside her conflicting feelings to listen. The point was coming, after all, right? The point that would hopefully explain away her other conflicting feelings. "So looking around here, we can probably figure that the boat really was attacked this time. The welcoming wagon isn't anywhere in sight, and the citizens are acting like they normally do. They don't know anything about what happened. Are you seeing where I'm going with this?"

It was in this moment that Neptune did something that truly surprised Arfoire. She had figured that once she accepted the fact that this Neptune was from another dimension, the surprises would be few and far between.

Turns out, she was wrong.

"No, and before you say anything, it's not 'cause I'm gonna make a super hilarious joke or anything!" Neptune stomped her foot on the ground, her expression unusually harsh for her. "You know what Arfy? I may not be the kinda CPU who sits around doing work work work for hours to make sure every single thing is running perfectly, but I sure don't make it so my people are miserable either. I mean, not on purpose anyway. I know something bad is goin' on and all, but I just can't sit around and only help myself out when some jerk is running around giving CPUs, and a friend of mine, a bad name!"

For a moment, Arfoire was stunned speechless. Hesitantly, she opened her mouth to-

"Not done yet!" Neptune puffed her cheeks out even more than normal. Apparently she'd just been catching her breath. That, at least, made Arfoire chuckle somewhat. "'Cause there's one more thing I've gotta say. Arfy, normally I'd totally be fine with doing what I need and skeedaddling, but what if you're right and they're in real super trouble here and nobody else knows?" Neptune paused. A strange image of darkness flashed in her mind, and for a moment, she felt like she was colder than she had ever been. She shivered involuntarily, losing herself in the feeling... But then it was gone. She wondered if she had even felt it at all. "Maybe I'm just being nosy and butting my head where it doesn't belong, just like you said I shouldn't do, and honestly, normally I'd rather sit around and let someone else take care of it, but... But since it doesn't look like there is anyone else, shouldn't we, you know... Do something?"

Though she had started strong, by the end, Neptune had started puttering out and was fighting the urge to lower her gaze. What was she thinking? Getting her face out there could get her killed, according to Arfoire. Of course she couldn't get involved in this world's politics. Why should she care? She could be playing games or something... It wasn't her business, was it? Nepgear was one thing, but she wasn't...

Arfoire put her hands on her hips. She let out a sigh. She shook her head.

She was smiling.

"Maybe 'night and day' was a little much after all..." she said to herself, still smiling despite how positively frustrated and exasperated she felt right now. This kid was just full of surprises. Neptune looked up at her, eyes wide with confusion and doubt, and Arfoire shifted awkwardly. "Look, like I said, I get what you're saying. You're not wrong here, kid. Not... Not entirely, anyway. It's why I was telling you in the first place."

Neptune's eyes lit up.

"Then that means..." she started, realizing that she was feeling more hopeful to throw herself into the unknown than she would have thought. This world... This place was really getting to her, wasn't it?

"It means I don't have a damn clue." Arfoire finished, honesty weighing out over the strange sense of pride she had been feeling watching Neptune. She tried not to let the CPU's slumping shoulders bother her. "Look, just because something's come up doesn't change the facts. It sounds like the CPUs where you come from might have worked together more often than I can even imagine, but here? Only a few are like that. One is dead, one is in prison, and the last one hasn't been taken seriously in years, and it's probably a matter of time before she goes too. The rest of them? The ones in power? The ones trying to control the majority of this world? They're monsters. They attack each other. They even attack their allies if it means they get out ahead. That's what they do."

Neptune nodded slowly, though in the back of her mind, she made a mental note of something. It sounded like Arfoire, in her "I'm explaining things everyone should know" monologue, had let something huge slip.

Obviously the dead CPU Arfoire mentioned was this world's Neptune... But there were others that weren't trying to win the Supervillain of the Decade Award somewhere? Did that mean... there could be some real allies out there...?

"So yeah, maybe something is going down here... And maybe someone should do something..." At this point, Arfoire's expression took a turn for the worse. It became the expression of someone who had seen too much and knew there wasn't always a light at the end of the tunnel. Neptune was losing hope quickly. "But just because this isn't what Lowee usually does doesn't make it not what the other nations do. Shit happens. Hate to break it to you, but it does. Interfering here, if this is bigger rather than smaller, because keep in mind that we still don't know even that much, could seriously hurt your chances of going home, of just surviving here even. Do you really want to risk that, kid? Don't you have things to go back to?"

Neptune looked away. Arfoire had a lot of good points. Of course she did.

She wanted to make things right with Nepgear. HER Nepgear. She wanted to play games. She wanted to tease Noire some more. She wanted to team up with Blanc and fight for the glory of the lesser endowed. She wanted to trade imports with Vert. She wanted to visit Plutia and Peashy again.

There was so much she wanted to do that, if she was stuck here or if she died here, she would never be able to do.

And yet...

What kind of hero, what kind of main character, would she be if she turned away now? She could be lazy, she could be selfish, she could be rude and even occasionally mean, but if there was one thing she wasn't, it was a coward.

"I don't know, Arfy. I don't." Neptune looked away. "I mean... 'Course I have stuff to go back to! Does that mean I can just sit back and watch all of this bad stuff though? Maybe it's normal for you, but it sure as heck isn't normal for me!" After a moment, Neptune made her decision. Maybe it had been made all along. "Are you saying, if I try to do something, you won't help me? Because, even though you KNOW it's wrong, it's how things go here?"

"Of course not, you idiot!" To Neptune's surprise, Arfoire snapped at her suddenly. It brought her back. It reminded her of the Arfoire she knew. There was an anger in her that Neptune hadn't seen from her before... No, that wasn't true. It had been there during that "interrogation" the other day. "You just... You're not understanding. It IS how things are here. I do know it's wrong, but I also know it's how the world works. And you know what? I think it's great you don't understand that. I'd rather you never have to." Arfoire placed her hands on Neptune's shoulders, leaning down to look her in the eye. "But you still don't understand. I do. I don't want you to get hurt. You're my priority here, Neptune, but just like I told you when I explained my rules, I'm not going to ruin my life if you're going to ignore everything I've said to you. People depend on me. Do you know why I'm telling you what's going on here?"

Neptune glanced away, a dry look crossing her features. She had gotten hopeful, but the real (and painfully disappointing) answer was loud and clear.

"So if something happens, I don't do something stupid and rush into danger and get myself in trouble?" Neptune offered sarcastically. Arfoire seemed like she was about to say something to this, but Neptune wasn't going to be talked down to any longer. "In case you forgot, I happen to be a CPU."

"And in case you've forgotten..." Arfoire seemed to have been expecting that response. Even if she'd been interrupted, she was starting to get a handle on this kid, or so she thought. She didn't miss a beat in her response. "That didn't do anything to help the Neptune that actually knew this world."

"Yeah, well guess what?" Neptune countered defiantly. She lifted her arms and pushed Arfoire's hands off of her shoulders. "Get this through your thick dumb head, Arfy: I'm not her!"

For a moment after Neptune spoke, the pair was silent. Neptune looked at Arfoire defiantly, despite how regret was already starting to seep in. Almost immediately, like she had been slapped, Arfoire pulled away. Her arms were dropped to her side.

Maybe Neptune should have apologized. Maybe she should have tried to hammer the point home, or at least explain it more gently. She wasn't sure. It's not like she was wrong, right? So many emotions were going through her so quickly that she had no idea which to address first.

Arfoire, on the other hand, didn't have any such problems of conflicting feelings.

"Fine. Ungrateful brat. I was right before. You're nothing like her. Go on then, go be a hero. Get yourself killed, never see your home again. Clearly, as you so brilliantly have deducted of me, I don't care. So go. Have it your way."

And just like that, Arfoire was gone.


	10. Chapter 10

Arfoire was angry.

Arfoire was hurt.

Arfoire was angry and Arfoire was hurt and...

And most of all, much as she hated to consider the possibility that she had been wrong in any way, Arfoire was regretting her actions.

Arfoire was a smart woman. She hadn't just magically traded in her old life for the life of a successful businesswoman at the drop of a hat. She had had to work for it. She had started with less than nothing. She had used her brain. She had made decisions and done things that she imagined little Neptune, at least this new and positively maddening one, wouldn't possibly be able to. She had done things in her life that she was proud of... and she had done things in her life that filled her with nothing but shame.

The point was that she was smart. She had even been called brilliant in her time. There was no reason for her to put any worth in the words of some bratty kid who, nine out of ten times, had no idea what they were talking about.

... And yet...

Neptune had had a point. She hadn't even been trying to be a brat about it either, even if she sort of was one. She had legitimately had a perfectly valid and reasonable point.

And Arfoire hated that.

She hated that Neptune had had a point, but even more than that, she hated that it was a point that actually meant something. It was something that she had known all along, on some level anyway, yet hearing it... It hurt. It hurt like hell.

And Arfoire hated that because she knew damn well it shouldn't. She had no right to be hurting right now and she knew it.

Arfoire had certainly been thinking, even if only on a very small scale, that she was glad to see Neptune again. She had been glad to spend time with her again, to hear her voice again, to simply watch her face move as she spoke. Even when she had brushed those thoughts aside, it hadn't been for any logical reasons: It had been because she had wanted to keep Neptune safe from meeting another terrible fate.

Neptune had been absolutely right. Arfoire had been looking to this girl not entirely (perhaps not at all) as her own person, which for all intents and purposes she was, but some kind of... What? A ghost? A clone?

A second chance?

As Arfoire walked through Lowee, she remembered Neptune's initial reaction to her. Neptune hadn't trusted her. She had thought Arfoire, Arfoire of all people, had been the one to hurt her and put her in the state Arfoire had found her in, in fact. It was something that Arfoire just found absurd, knowing their history.

A history Neptune had no knowledge of. A history Neptune had no part of. A history Neptune had absolutely nothing to do with.

Without that history, Neptune had woken up, recovering from near death, in a complete stranger's bed. Was it any wonder she hadn't been the most trusting person from the getgo? Perhaps Arfoire really had attacked her.

While that was obviously a reasonable conclusion for someone to make in her position, at the same time... No, even with the "complete strangers" angle, it wasn't at all. It certainly could have been possible that Arfoire had been the one to hurt Neptune... But then she also took her in? She bandaged her, clothed her, fed her? Was it not incredibly clear that Arfoire had been caring for her?

Arfoire swallowed as she recalled a theory of hers.

It was something she had considered that first day Neptune had spoken to her (it was only a day or so ago, wasn't it?), but had subsequently brushed it off when Neptune began interacting normally with her.

Neptune... She knew an Arfoire as well, didn't she? But unlike the two of them in this world... If Arfoire considered those brief words that Neptune had let slip, the attitude she had displayed before she had realized she was in another world, there was only one answer.

Neptune, in her world, and "her" Arfoire...

... were enemies.

Arfoire felt something heavy rest inside of her as she realized the implications of that. The magnitude if what that meant, not only of Neptune's character, but of her own.

While she had been living out some kind of twisted fantasy and inwardly denying this girl her own identity and replacing it with the identity of someone long gone, Neptune had given her a chance. Despite the fact that every bone in Neptune's body surely must have told her not to trust Arfoire, she had. She had set her own past aside and given Arfoire a chance. Perhaps she hadn't fully trusted Arfoire for other reasons, but they were all reasons Arfoire supplied on her own.

From the very start, Neptune had been trying, and at some point had clearly succeeded, to see Arfoire as her own person. She had put aside whatever history she had with her own Arfoire, a history that made Arfoire nearly killing her a perfectly realistic assumption to make, and given Arfoire a chance.

And Arfoire had promptly taken that and spat it in the girl's face.

Yes, to Arfoire, Neptune had been acting like a brat. She couldn't help it though, could she? Could Arfoire really hold it against her? Logically, if she truly thought about it, this was a girl who knew nothing and was being told by Arfoire, in no uncertain terms, to accept everything without question or go to hell. Was it really any wonder she was being defiant about the whole thing? Was it so wrong that she didn't want to just sit back and watch people get hurt?

Maybe... Arfoire had been being a bit of a brat herself...?

Had Arfoire perhaps become too jaded?

"Damn it." As she realized she had finally arrived somewhere in all her aimless walking, Arfoire looked up. An expression torn between a scowl and a smirk soon rose to her face. It would figure, her legs had taken her to the Basilicom. Of all the possible places she could have wound up, familiar or otherwise, it had to be here, didn't it? Perhaps to remind her of how the Neptune she knew, not this new one, might be ashamed of her for her recent actions?

Arfoire considered this for a moment as she looked over the tremendous doors of the looming building.

Or maybe...

Maybe Neptune, her Neptune, had brought her here so she could start making up for those actions.

Arfoire nodded to herself and, without a second thought, pushed the familiar doors of Lowee's Basilicom open and let her voice echo inside.

"Hey Mina! Guess who?!"

* * *

Neptune supposed she should feel liberated. That would be the sensible thing to feel, right? After all, she had wanted to be left to her own devices, hadn't she? She had been planning on ditching Arfoire all on her own eventually, hadn't she? So really, Arfoire had done her a huge favor in running off like that!

Right?

Sure, so Neptune had decided sticking with Arfoire for a while might not be so bad. And maybe Neptune had really started to trust Arfoire, even started liking her a little bit despite her initial misgivings. She's gotten used to Arfoire's company, big deal! What did any of that stuff matter?

As it turned out, it mattered quite a lot.

Neptune had figured out early on that Arfoire had been close to this world's Neptune. It wasn't like the woman had ever really tried to hide that aspect of things, even if Neptune was still clueless as to whatever the specifics were. Did the specifics really matter? Maybe eventually they would, but ultimately, that Neptune wasn't Neptune: whatever she had done was her business. Neptune was cool with that.

What mattered was simply the fact that Arfoire and this world's Neptune had been close.

"I mean... How would I react if Nep Jr. died someday, then all of a sudden a little clone of her got dropped off on my doorstep?" Neptune mused to herself. The thought of losing Nepgear all on its own was upsetting enough. She couldn't imagine how messed up she would be if another one would pop up later. "Besides... Am I really one to complain?"

If she thought about it, she had actually been a part of this very situation before. The same one. She knew better than most how this should go down, shouldn't she? The key difference, though, was that that time, she had been on the giving end of the comparisons instead of the receiving end.

Had she not waltzed around Plutia and Peashy's world with knowledge of things she shouldn't have known about? Had she not had preconceived notions and opinions of people (Noire, Blanc, Vert) from the very moment she had laid her eyes on them?

Sure, so she had been right most of the time in her assumptions, but hadn't that been pure luck of the dimensional draw there? What if that world had been like this one, and the only thing anyone had had in common was their appearances? She would have just made a complete ass of herself!

Sure, she had eventually come to see the other versions of her friends as their own people... After a lengthy adventure involving getting to know them and the subtle differences between her friends and these new ones, that is. Now she could, say, easily pick the two Verts apart (for example one was more likely to cry and throw a fit when she lost some kind of competition, the other would still be disappointed, but in that weird sisterly way of hers, and then she'd jump right back into the game), but had she always been able to do that? Sure, in her defense, the two pairs of her friends were still ridiculously similar, but that didn't make them the exact same people, did it? And how could she expect Arfoire to have the kind of understanding to separate between dimensional doubles like she could when she'd been at it for over ten years? Arfoire had had a day so far to digest all of this! A day!

And, to that end, could she really blame Arfoire for being happy that someone she clearly cared about, even if it was just an alternate version of them, had just appeared right before her? She'd known Neptune for all of, what, two days? Could Neptune really have expected her to have moved beyond the fact someone she cared about had returned from the grave in such a short period of time?

If nothing else, had she really had the right to slap Arfoire with that cold dose of reality like that?

"'Course not..." Neptune scowled. She knew, guilty as she felt for hurting her... friend? She supposed this Arfoire might become that down the road. She knew though, guilty as she felt, she couldn't exactly hold back her words in fear of hurting feelings. If this had been a normal situation and she and Arfoire had just met in the street, fine, that's one thing. They could have worked this out slowly, gone on some adventures, raise some Lily Ranks, maybe they could have even played some games while they were at it.

But this wasn't normal. Even for Neptune, where the definition of normal changed every other month, this still was definitely not normal.

Neptune wanted to get home. Neptune wanted to help this world's Nepgear, and maybe this world as a whole. Neptune wanted to do something about whatever was going on here in Lowee. Neptune, much to her surprise, found herself wanting to do a lot and she found herself with very little means to do any of it.

Unfortunately... This brought her back to her original conclusion:

She might not be able to work with Arfoire after all.

Yeah, she had hurt Arfoire's feelings. Yeah, she could have been more sensitive about it. Yeah, she could have done that any number of different ways. Not doing it at all was pretty high on the list.

But as guilty and even potentially hypocritical as it made her, Neptune stubbornly couldn't deny the fact that she had still been right. If Arfoire was intent on looking at her like someone else, if Arfoire was intent on treating her like someone else, and if Arfoire was even so much as making plans based on her mere feelings that Neptune was or reminded her of someone else, there was nothing wrong with pointing out that Neptune wasn't actually someone else. They, or at least Neptune, had things to do, and the world wasn't going to stand still and wait while Arfoire got her feelings in order and took her time in separating the dead Neptune she knew from the living one here now. If something was going on here in Lowee, they absolutely didn't have that luxury.

... And yet... Still, even knowing this, Neptune felt conflicted. Her feelings and her mind were at odds with each other. It was a very new experience for the CPU, and one she wasn't particularly enjoying.

Her feelings, her heart, told her she had been wrong. Her mind, her logic, told her she had been right.

What was she supposed to listen to? Was it wrong of her to want to think both parts of her were each right in a way? Did that make any sense at all, or was she just being a selfish, ignorant brat after all? Maybe she really didn't understand anything after all. She was already incredibly confused as it was, even without all of this moral conflict going on. Without Arfoire around to guide her, combined with the fact that she was still trying to keep a low profile (nothing bad had happened YET after all), she had no idea what to do or where to go.

It was funny, in a way. Now that she finally had freedom from Arfoire, just like she wanted, to look around and learn about this world and do whatever else she wanted...

All she wanted to do now was to go find Arfoire and make things right.

The real hilarious part, though, the real punchline here was that without Arfoire around, the chances of Neptune actually finding her way around were slim to none. In her own world, she knew the cities so well that traveling within them was practically like simply navigating a menu. Having friends in the other world and living there long enough had allowed her the same result there.

But here? But now?

She felt more stranded than she had ever felt before.

* * *

She wasn't sure if she could consider it luck that the two she had been tailing had split up. While the fact that they were together in the first place still confused her to no end, it at least made it easier to follow them from afar like she had been. Not that following one person was that much more difficult than two, of course, but she was never one to not appreciate when things were made easier for her.

In the end, she had chosen her primary "target" quite easily. The subject of her interest and curiosity was the one that shouldn't be there at all, and it was the entire reason she had paused her original plans to follow the two in the first place. Who cared what the other one did?

Ironically enough, following her new target alone had been no problem at all. The target of her interest wandered around the streets aimlessly, often in circles, like a lost child. There was no rhyme or reason to where her target went, and it had gotten to the sad and pitiful point where she probably could follow on foot and try to listen in on any possible conversation.

She wouldn't do such a thing though. Tempting as it was, it was an unnecessary risk and there was little she saw to be gained from such an action. She was learning plenty as it was now anyway.

After all, she was efficient, first and foremost. She had seen firsthand how inflated egos had destroyed people, and she would sooner die than become like them. While some would make grand performances in order to show off their supposed greatness, if she could achieve the very same results with as little mess as possible, she would always choose that path. It wasn't that she wasn't capable of taking pride in success or a job well done. It was that she knew, she knew far too well, that pride was dangerous. It was like a drug, and she wouldn't ever allow herself to give in to a weakness like that.

Someone she had once considered a true rival had taken the other path. The path lined with arrogance and jealousy and lust for power. The path that she would never let herself walk on. This rival had let emotions control them and twist them into something that she couldn't stand being associated with. She hadn't spoken to that "rival" in what felt like a lifetime, and she was content in letting it stay that way.

Oh, she would never claim to be innocent. It wasn't that that rival had done something "wrong" and she, as a "good" person, wanted nothing to do with that. She was about as far from being "good" as a person could be.

No one in this world was "good." Not if they had goals.

And if Uni had anything in this world, she had goals.


	11. Chapter 11

Arfoire shouldn't have been surprised that no one answered her initial declaration. The people working in the Basilicom all scurried away like scared mice, and neither Mina nor Lowee's CPU were anywhere she could see. This wasn't entirely surprising, of course. She had been planning to see Mina at some point, after all, and she knew all too well how Mina could be. As for the CPU or her sisters, well, it was probably better they weren't around. Arfoire wasn't in the mood for a fight, and one would only be counterproductive anyway.

The woman surveyed the inside of the Basilicom. It was cleaner than the last time she had been here, but only marginally so. It was obvious that very little had changed in how things were being run since the last time Arfoire had been here. It could have honestly been a week ago that Arfoire had last been here for how similar it was. Messy, disorganized, with a sickly aura hanging in the air that reminded Arfoire of worse days.

In a way, it was comforting. In a way, it was depressing.

Neptune, her Neptune, had hoped so dearly that things would have changed. It was something she had worked for with all of her heart. She had wanted all of the nations to change, her own included.

"And look where it got her." Arfoire reminded herself bitterly. It was just another reason why she didn't want this new Neptune, or any Neptune for that matter, getting too involved with these matters. She knew how badly things could go when they went bad, and she also knew how easy it was for that to happen.

Sighing, Arfoire shot a look at one of the remaining members of the Basilicom staff, who promptly dashed off in fear. Good riddance, she thought. Though it would have been nice if someone could have told her where the hell Mina was. She supposed she would just have to look around herself.

Her next plan of action chosen, the woman made her way down the familiar halls. As she looked at the inside of the Basilicom as she walked, Arfoire figured she should be thankful that Lowee hadn't changed too much. Security in the actual Basilicom was pretty terrible, like it always had been, thanks to how scared most people were. It wasn't like that in other nations, at least not to the extent that it was almost laughable like it was here. The CPU and her Oracle were so cocky that they didn't worry about leaving their front doors wide open, because they knew no one would be dumb enough to challenge them.

Despite the earlier fight she had been in, Arfoire couldn't help but grin at that thought, a certain dimensionally misplaced CPU coming to mind.

That wasn't entirely true here, now was it? There might be one person around here that was dumb enough for a whole army's worth of morons.

"Maybe I can do something to make sure she won't get herself killed when she tries..." Arfoire murmured to herself. She scanned the area, pursing her lips. She was pretty sure Mina's room was around here, but she needed to be ready. If this was going to happen, then she wanted it to happen without problems and get as much out of it as she possibly could. She shook away her doubts as best she could and moved towards the door she thought was the right one. The fact it was shaking and she could hear loud noises coming from within made it all the more likely this was the place, and her memories supported that claim as well.

And yet...

As she reached for the handle, she paused.

Truth be told, part of Arfoire didn't want to do this. This was a world she had walked away from. Once she walked through this door, there wouldn't be any going back. Until this was over, whatever this was, once she started this, she would have to finish it. It would mean everyone at the farm could, potentially, be threatened down the road. The possibility that they would learn the secrets she had been keeping from most of them would become much larger. She might have been thinking too much, but then, she might not have been thinking nearly hard enough. It was a dangerous world she was about to walk back into, and to go in without being mentally prepared would just be foolish.

It took a moment for Arfoire to regain her composure, and upon doing so, she could only scowl at herself. She was no coward. She wasn't going to abandon Neptune and she wasn't going to endanger those waiting for her back at the farm either. What would happen would happen, but she wasn't going to hide from it. Not now, not when she was needed.

Steeling herself for the inevitable, Arfoire twisted the doorknob and pushed the door open, though as soon as she did, a blast of volume from within nearly knocked her over. Shaking it off, Arfoire covered her ears and stepped inside.

As expected, the room was messy. The noise was bad enough, but that could be adapted to. There was no adapting to this... filth. Dirty clothes were strewn everywhere, papers were in disorganized stacks all over the place, various wrappers and contains lay discarded on the floor, and Arfoire was quite sure it smelled like something had died in here.

Wrinkling her nose, Arfoire carefully and quietly stepped over some trash to make her way inside the room. Not that it mattered. She could have started breaking things and she doubted she would be noticed. It was supposed to be an office, but ever the "creative" one, Mina had turned it into an all in one bedroom where she could do everything she needed.

Eyes finally settling on the sofa in front of a too big TV that was belching out too loud noises, Arfoire grit her teeth as she saw a familiar head of hair from behind. Seems like Mina's priorities hadn't changed a bit.

"Mina." Arfoire didn't want to get closer than she already was. That noise was far too loud already and the smell was getting worse the closer she got to Mina. It was one thing dealing with the woman in a neutral environment, but in her personal territory? Awful. Still, it had to be done. Arfoire took another step closer, raising her voice ever so slightly. "Mina."

Still no response. Her eye twitching, Arfoire took two steps forward and tried again. Nothing.

"Damn it..." Cursing her luck and inwardly making plans for a long bath as soon as possible, Arfoire made her way around the couch to put herself in-between Mina and the TV, a sure fire way to make her presence known. "Min- Oh, damn it!"

She should have expected this.

Mina was on the couch, just as Arfoire had seen from behind, but while she looked to be in the position of someone who was watching the screen, upon looking at the Oracle up close, Arfoire realized the sickening truth.

Mouth wide open, a stream of drool leaking out.

Hair uncombed and looking like it hadn't been washed for days, possibly weeks.

Clothes wrinkled and in complete disarray, with food stains of all shapes and sizes decorating them.

Hand holding on to a bottle like a child would hold onto a toy, only the barest amount of liquid left within.

Arfoire sighed. She had hoped, if only deep down and only a little, that at least this might have improved, if anything in Lowee could have, but she supposed that was yet another miracle that would have been too much to ask for. And she knew better than anyone that miracles didn't happen.

Instead, there was simply the cold reality.

And that reality was that Mina Nishizawa, Lowee's Oracle and resident drunken slob, was simply out cold.

* * *

Neptune was pretty sure she had passed by that building before. She had commented to a passerby how stupid it looked, only for the person to look horrified at Neptune's rudeness and run off, as if they didn't want to be associated with someone who wasn't going to bow down to every aspect of the city's design. How dare she have an opinion!

"Haven't these people ever used the internet...? They'd be crying to their mommas in no time from that if they can't take a comment like mine..." Neptune wondered out loud, leaning against a wall to gaze up at the offending skyscraper. Her hands were stuffed into her pockets and she was still wearing her hood, so she supposed it could be that she just looked suspicious, but...

Neptune rubbed at an eye, frowning slightly. Yeah, it was definitely the same building. They had all looked fun and interesting when she had arrived, but now that she had had some time to wander around and explore, she was starting to notice something really off about everything here. There were lots of things that looked interesting at a glance, but upon closer inspection, something was wrong.

Some buildings were abandoned, others had never been completed in the first place. Some buildings were only painted on one side, others were only clean on the side that was most likely to be seen.

Combined with everything Neptune had seen of the people here and heard from Arfoire about this country, it all gave her this weird image that they wanted to make an impression rather than make progress. It was so backwards that Neptune couldn't even begin to wrap her head around the idea.

She was lazy. It wasn't like she took pride in it or that she was in denial of it, she just knew it. It was how she was and it worked for her. She had gone years without doing much of anything in the past, but her country had, more or less, been a reflection of those times. In her world, Nepgear had always been there to pick up the slack for her (pang of guilt), and in Plutia's world, she and Plutia had done enough to get by... until Nepgear arrived there too to pick up the slack for them both (another pang).

Shares had always reflected these things, however, but with how she could at least get things done when she felt like it, combined with Nepgear's efforts (pang pang pang) and her own charm, she'd never had to... lie like this. No one had. She could just picture Noire going on an hour long rant about the sheer absurdity of the idea. Heck, she almost felt a rant of her own coming on.

So why was this normal here? Why was it that, instead of fixing things, Lowee (Neptune really wanted to hope the other nations weren't like this) just decorated a little and glossed over the truth? Who were they trying to fool? The citizens? The people they wanted to turn into citizens?

Both?

But... Why did they want to fool anyone?

"Hey, shouldn't we..."

"Ssshhh!"

So lost in her thoughts, Neptune didn't notice the drastic change in the attitude of the passing people around her, or the sounds of voices that were very close to her person. It hadn't been hard to start tuning out the world, considering how it had seemed no one wanted to have anything to do with her. Her eyes were closed, after all, and she was rapidly sinking into her own little world as she tried to make heads or tails of this crazy situation. The gasps, the giggles, the footsteps? She didn't hear any of it. She had her thinking cap on, darn it!

The people clearly weren't happy here. Would they be even less happy without things like this? Couldn't they see how obviously they were being manipulated and brainwashed? And if it was for people they were trying to have become citizens... Well, while Arfoire certainly had made many good points, and as unhappy as this place was, logic did point to it being better to live in than the town she had been in, happy as that was.

The people here, jittery and untrusting as they seemed to her, did at least look like they weren't starving. They looked healthy and clean and stuff, so if that kind of thing was considered a luxury in this world, it would make sense for the people to be willing to put up with such unhappy conditions in order to survive. That had to make that choice. To some, it probably wasn't a choice at all.

That was it.

That was the part Neptune couldn't get her head around.

How in the world could someone call themselves a CPU, a freaking goddess, with a straight face and then turn around and make their people choose between happiness and health?

If the goddess weren't giving their all to give the people both, the people left them for the country and the goddess that could! That was the entire foundation of everything Neptune had ever known! People weren't supposed to be prisoners! If anything, the goddesses were! Prisoner to popularity and making sure their people were happy AND healthy!

The more she thought about this, the more it really, truly upset her. This was just wrong on every level. It was so wrong even cheat codes wouldn't be able to fix it.

Something had to be done. Maybe she was just a hypocrite, being a lazy bum that let her overworked baby sister fix everything for her and all, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she left here to go home and eat pudding without at least giving the Blanc here or whoever had replaced her a piece of her mind.

"Though maybe I'm just trying to avoid going home and facing my own problems..." Neptune pondered aloud, in a rare moment of self-reflection, as she considered the Nepgear situation once more. Ever since she'd been told how the sisters had fared here, that seemed to come up in her thoughts quite often.

"Hahaha! She spoke! She's not dead after all! Told ya, stupiiiiiid! Now you owe me lunch!"

"I didn't say she was-"

Neptune's eyes snapped open at the sound of voices and laughter. It wasn't just that she hadn't noticed being snuck up on that surprised her, it was the eerie familiarity of the voices, particularly the louder one. It felt like she should know it... no, like she did know it, but at the same time, something about it sounded terribly alien to her.

Looking around to get a hold of the situation, Neptune's mouth fell open as her eyes met those of the speaker's.

Blue eyes, all too familiar blue eyes, looked into her own. A round face that she had seen many times in the past was facing her, jaw set and lips curved upwards in a taunting sort of sneer. Though it was a face Neptune knew was shared with one other person, the short hair and voice gave it away.

There was no question who this person was, but at the same time, it was impossible. The evidence was clear as day, but Neptune couldn't believe who she was looking at even so.

It was Rom.

Despite the outfit, the words, the attitude, and the expression that were all so totally and decidedly not Rom... It was Rom. Neptune just knew it.

Though Neptune had known this would happen eventually, though she thought she had been prepared for it thanks to dealing with Arfoire, there really was just no being ready for seeing someone you personally knew like this. However "this" could be described, anyway. Neptune should probably have been glad that it was Rom and not one of her fellow CPUs she was being exposed to first, because that might have given her a heart attack, but she didn't have it in her to be glad about anything right now looking at this Rom.

Earrings.

A nose piercing.

Platform shoes.

A skirt too short and a top too small.

Makeup. A whole lot of makeup.

Fake eyelashes. Fake fingernails.

And an attitude radiating off of her to give it all a run for its money.

Now, Neptune would never make the claim that she knew the other CPU's sisters all that well. Heck, since she had gotten here she had been filled with enough doubts regarding her own sister as it was.

But she did know enough.

Rom was supposed to be sweet.

Rom was supposed to be kind.

Rom was supposed to be innocent.

Rom was supposed to quietly adore Nepgear and make Blanc's icy heart melt and make everyone feel better and be soft and nice and cute and a bunch of other good things that you thought of when you thought about Rom.

Just looking at this Rom, though...

This Rom, who was taunting Neptune with her eyes and seemingly begging for a fight, who was laughing at Neptune with every fiber of her being, who was making even more rude jabs at Neptune while Neptune struggled to try to process what she was seeing...

It made her sick. It was a feeling she had never before felt, and she was quickly finding herself feeling so grateful that she was the only one stuck in this mess. Nepgear and Blanc and Ram and the others didn't need to see this. Not ever.

"Maybe she is dead. Brain dead anyway. Kinda like you, hahaha!" Rom was talking over her shoulder, a callous, hateful smile on her face. Neptune glanced in the direction she was looking and, as expected, saw the girl that had to be Ram.

Given the way Rom was so openly insulting her sister, Neptune wasn't sure what to expect. That was something she would never have expected from either of the twins. They had always been do loving towards each other, after all. Maybe she and Ram had switched personalities and then taken them to nasty extremes? If Arfoire was nice instead of mean and Nepgear would kill her instead of dote on her, that might make sense, right? So by that logic, Ram would probably look like some kind of stereotypical introvert, maybe she'd be crying or something, and that would complete this horrible picture of awful wrongness.

Upon looking at Ram, Neptune almost wished that had been what she saw. Then at least things would have made sense in how everything here was making no sense at all.

While Rom was a walking Opposite Day poster, Ram... wasn't. At all. Her clothes were different than what Neptune was used to seeing from her, but then, this was a tropical paradise and Neptune was used to seeing her versions of the twins that lived in a regular winter wonderland.

While this Rom was blatant and showy and, quite frankly, more than a little trampy, this Ram was actually... appropriate. Shorts that were neither too long or too short, a spaghetti strap shirt that didn't show much of anything or scream indecency like Rom's tube top, cute sandals that Neptune actually wouldn't mind having herself, and earrings that initially looked like they matched Rom's... but after a second glance were very clearly plastic clip ons.

As far as the clothes went, to Neptune's great surprise and relief, she actually looked like what Ram really might look like if she were living by the beach.

If that had been all, Neptune might have been okay. She might have been relieved, even, to see that someone here, after Arfoire and her farmies, after Super Gust, and now after Rom, was normal.

But then Neptune saw Ram's expression and she felt sick for an entirely different reason than she had with Rom.

She was smiling. It was clearly a forced smile, but it was a smile without a doubt. Who could possibly be smiling at all the crap being said to them like that...?! She had on some makeup too, Neptune suddenly noticed, though not as thick as Rom's, and at first, it didn't look like it had been applied well at all. Neptune wasn't an expert in that kind of thing, so she couldn't tell at first, but as she watched Ram force laughter and agreement with Rom's insults, she realized that the makeup had probably been fine... at one point.

What she was seeing now was how it looked after the girl had been crying.

Neptune was speechless, which in turn seemed to only egg Rom on, but Neptune didn't particularly care. At least that took the heat off Ram for a minute.

Of all the insane things this world had thrown at her thus far, nothing, not even Arfoire being nice to her or Gust being really hot, had made her mind reel and her stomach churn like seeing Rom acting like this.

"Man Ram, I think we've finally met somebody more retarded than you! Kinda looks familiar though... You think she looks familiar? I think she looks familiar."

As if she was genuinely surprised at being asked for her input, like the mere thought of Rom asking for her opinion was like getting a second birthday, complete with presents and cake and everything, Ram seemed to glow. She was glowing so brightly at the possibility of simply having positive attention from her sister that it actually made Neptune's chest hurt to watch. Ram quickly started her answer, as if if she didn't move quickly enough, the insults would resume once again. She looked just like Ram should like, that sweet, if loud, little girl whose number one priority was her twin.

"Well, she kinda looks a lot like-"

That finally got Neptune's attention, and it snapped her out of her thoughts full force to boot. Of course the CPU's little sisters would recognize her! Why had she let herself get so distracted? She had known from the start she might run into Bizarro Buddies! Preparing a fake story and all the excuses she could possibly need in this situation, Neptune opened her mouth to start her defense-

"Oh, if you really do know her, she must not be someone important. Forget it. Don't say anything else, 'kay?"

Just like that, the oh so obvious hope and plea and desperate desire for her sister's attention that Ram had been so eager for was smashed into a thousand pieces.

Neptune almost wondered if Rom had even recognized her at all, or if Rom had purposely set Ram up just so she could bring her down. The following nasty laughter (cackling might have been a better word; what a witch!) seemed to imply as much, but maybe this Rom was just so naturally nasty that it could have been genuine.

Neptune grit her teeth, clenching a fist.

She wanted to do something about this stupid world, right?

This might be a good place to start.

Just as Neptune opened her mouth, before she could start her own attack on Rom, to her surprise, it was Ram who spoke up.

"Y... Yeah, you sure are right! What was I thinking? Haha..." Ram was smiling again, wearing that clearly forced yet clearly practiced smile that was quickly starting to break Neptune's heart. "Y'know, I bet you'd be much happier having lunch alone. I'd just ruin it being there." There was a pause as Ram offered Rom some money. "Here's my allowance, so you can have something nice."

Rom and Neptune both watched this act, Rom appraisingly with some kind of casual disinterest and Neptune fighting between the overwhelming desires to punch Rom square in the face and give Ram a huge hug.

"Hmmm..." Rom counted the money, as if she was trying to decide whether or not the amount was good enough for her. She seemed completely nonplussed by Ram saying she would ruin Rom's meal simply by being there. She probably agreed. Sighing, the money disappeared, presumably into Rom's inventory, and Rom put a hand on her hip. "It's not enough for anything nice, but I can make it work if I add the rest myself. You'll owe me the difference."

"Glad to do it!" Ram chirped almost immediately, though Neptune sincerely doubted that made her happy.

"Duh." With that dismissive remark, as if Ram had fulfilled her purpose for the day and Rom already knew what to expect of her, Rom cast one final disdainful look at Neptune and then walked off without so much as a second thought, not even giving Ram a chance to say goodbye.

"What a stinking load of..." Neptune growled as watched the shrinking back of the girl. She wasn't sure if she wanted to help this Rom get better and turn her life around or just help her find her way into an oncoming Neptune Break, but she was definitely going to get some "help" from Neptune, that was for sure.

"Hey..."

Oh, right.

Ram was still here.

Suddenly feeling just a little bit nervous, Neptune turned away from looking down the street where Rom had gone to look at Ram. She nearly jumped a foot in the air as she did, for Ram had completely closed the distance between them, leaving Neptune almost comically pinned to the wall by someone fairly smaller than her.

"W-What're you-"

Ram was surprisingly silent, responding to Neptune's stumbling and stammering with actions instead of words. With Neptune still against the wall, not to mention having been taken totally off guard by the girl's suddenly very forward approach, she could do little to resist as the smaller girl gently reached up and lowered Neptune's hood.

And as soon as she did, she gasped. Her eyes widened. She stepped back, quickly placing a hand on her chest. Her breathing was rough.

She looked as though she had seen a ghost.

And then?

She smiled.

"I knew it!"


	12. Chapter 12

Neptune swallowed. She felt sweat running down the back of her neck, which suddenly felt very exposed without her hood covering things up. She hadn't really given Arfoire's worries much credit before now, but now that she was face to face with the reality of being recognized, she was surprised to find herself panicked. There was no question in Ram's expression. Ram didn't have a single doubt in her mind as to the identity of the person she was looking at.

And she looked so darn happy about it!

The problem was that, wrong as Ram technically was, she was right too.

"I knew it." Ram repeated quietly, though Neptune wondered if she was talking to Neptune or to herself at this point. She was smiling widely at Neptune, and it made her feel dirty knowing that Ram was smiling over something that wasn't really true, and dirtier still knowing, after everything she had just witnessed, she had no choice but to take the reason for that smile away.

The smile Ram was wearing now was genuine. It wasn't forced or practiced or hiding much sadder feelings or anything like those earlier ones had been. It was everything a smile should be. It was the kind of smile Rom and Blanc should be bringing to her face... Not Neptune.

It made Neptune want to do everything but smile.

For whatever reason, this Ram was happy to see Neptune. Or at least the dead Neptune, anyway. And unlike with Arfoire, Neptune didn't really want to correct her. What kind of jerk would, knowing what it would probably do to the girl?

Well, technically Neptune had no idea for sure, but given what she had just witnessed between the sisters and what she was seeing out of Ram now, she could make an educated guess.

"Can we... go somewhere private?" Neptune found herself croaking out. She knew she should have gone right into denial, but she didn't have it in her. She just didn't. She had to go easy on the girl. Plus, she thought as she pulled her hood back up, who knew how she would react? Things could potentially get really ugly and really fast. Best to not be in public for that.

In the back of Neptune's mind, she found herself feeling anger and regret. For all her earlier boasting, now that push had come to shove she was quick to cave to the concerns Arfoire had planted in her, and that made her angry. If she had been going to act like this when it came time to show her stuff, why had she even bothered putting up a fight in the first place? She couldn't help but regret that dumb fight even more now. She had been all talk. That just made her into a hypocrite, didn't it?

"'Course!" Ram didn't seem to notice Neptune's concerns. Either she wasn't very perceptive (something Neptune doubted given her earlier performance with Rom) or she just didn't care and getting to talk to Neptune took priority. This was going to really suck. Neptune wasn't going to like this. "Wanna fly somewhere private then?"

"Fly?" Alarm bells went off. If Ram really thought Neptune was the other Neptune, then it made sense for her to assume Neptune could fly. Even if Neptune wasn't that same Neptune, flight was still very much within her power. Thinking fast, Neptune raised her hands in a defensive sort of way and smiled sheepishly. "Ahaha, I'd normally totally be all for that, but nobody knows I'm here, so if people suddenly saw me flying around, weeeeell..."

Hopefully Ram would fall for it. It was still technically the truth, after all, though Neptune was still leaving out some pretty hefty chunks of it. Unfortunately, too little too late was Neptune realizing that she hadn't denied she could fly like she probably should have. Arfoire probably would have caught that if she had been here.

Luckily for any oncoming feelings over that fight, Ram was apparently more than happy with that explanation and cut those feelings off at the pass.

"Ohhhh..." Ram seemed to consider Neptune's words, tilting her head curiously. She was still smiling, though now she looked just a little more thoughtful. It almost looked like she was plotting something, in that way kids would do. After a moment, she nodded and made a grab for one of Neptune's hands, motioning to the hoodie with her other hand. "That's why you're wearing this then, huh? I get it! Okay, leave it to me!"

For just a moment, Neptune felt like she was talking to her world's Ram. There was a kick in her voice, a spunkiness that had been completely absent from her interactions with her sister, and she looked eager to go, just as the Ram she knew would be.

But as she was taken away by Ram, she realized there were still differences, even now. There was something weighing this Ram down that, though Neptune didn't know what it was, her Ram had never had to deal with. There was something here that made it hard for Ram to get the spark going that came so naturally to the one Neptune knew. She supposed differences should be expected, but it was weird. Why was Ram kind of... normalish too? Was it just chance that she wasn't super different like everyone else was? Or was there something else going on?

... On that note...!

"Where are we going?" Neptune had just been letting Ram pull her along, but it occurred to her that it was possible she was being played. It was mostly her listening to this mental voice that sounded annoyingly like Arfoire, but darn it, it had a good point. That would make sense, right? If everyone else was some crazy opposite version of how they normally were, then why wouldn't Ram be?

"Hehe, don't worry, it's safe!" And yet, Ram really did seem genuine. Neptune liked to think she was at least a vaguely good judge of character, sometimes, and Ram's seemed decent. Neptune couldn't bring herself to doubt her like she had Arfoire, even though she knew she should. Not after what she had seen between the twins and not after she had seen Ram brighten up when she saw her face. The face that was glancing back towards Neptune and smiling brightly. "It's my secret hideout!"

Seeing that, the CPU pushed the doubts away as she let herself be led away. How could this sweet little kid be playing her?

Neptune found herself smiling a little despite the uneasiness she was feeling knowing that she had to come up with some kind of explanation soon. She wasn't sure if it was the almost familiarity of it, or just that weird effect kids had on people when they weren't being annoying, or maybe it was that she was just genuinely happy to see this poor kid in such high spirits after all of that crap Rom had been flinging at her.

Now that had been weird. Among other things, of course, but if she thought about the other things that encounter had been then she might have to take a leaf out of Plutia's book and transform anyway to go hunt that punk down.

Still... Why was Ram like this but Rom was like an entirely different person? Those twins always seemed to do everything together, even their poses in the opening videos! Here, though, it was the complete opposite from what she had seen. Rom seemed completely independent, looking at Ram as some kind of dirty... thing that was there solely for her use, but Ram? Ram was either a masochist of such extremes that she put Tekken to shame (Neptune thought the smeared makeup denoting where tears had been made that fairly unlikely) or something else was going on between these sisters that she didn't know about.

As she let Ram pull her along, down sidewalks and through passing groups of people, Neptune started to feel her confidence returning. She could still vividly remember the verbal lashing this girl had been receiving just a short while ago. She was sure that there was more to this than she knew, there had to be, and it wasn't like she had anything else to do right now, right? It wasn't like she needed to rush home or anything... Her Nepgear would understand, wouldn't she? Plus, if she was going to eventually be dealing with a crazy, homicidal version of her sister, dealing with this version of the twins first might be a good place to ease into the idea, right? Sure, she wanted to find Arfoire and make things right there, she did, but she had no idea where to look right now and wandering around aimlessly got her nowhere. She doubted Arfoire would leave without her anyway.

At least Neptune hoped she wouldn't.

Besides, if she stuck around one of the CPU Candidates, she would be all the more likely to run into whoever or whatever was attacking Lowee, right? And once she got things explained to Ram about herself, maybe she could wrangle some of the information about this world that Arfoire hadn't mentioned yet out of her.

This situation was actually working out to be turning in her favor. She would, of course, need to track down Arfoire eventually, but...

Neptune quickened her pace somewhat, much to the surprise and delight of Ram, who laughed and then sped up herself in turn.

For now, she felt like she was needed here more.

* * *

Threats didn't work.

Yelling didn't work.

Throwing things didn't work.

Breaking things didn't work.

She had almost considered leaving at this point, but no. She was here and she was going to at least talk to Mina, even if, at this point, it would just be to yell at the woman for her horrible lifestyle choices, choices that had led to her being practically comatose in front of a television and surrounded by empty bottles.

It wasn't helping her any that doing all of this while standing next to that enormous television with those enormous speakers that were blasting volumes approaching levels higher than any room had the right to contain was probably permanently damaging her hearing. She had looked for the remote, but had gone without finding hide nor hair of the device, and she was quickly losing her-

Something exploded on the screen and Arfoire really did fall over this time. Scrambling to her feet, she turned to the television and glared angrily at it.

That settled it.

It had to die.

"I've... had... enough of this!" Letting out a roar that was quite unlike her, Arfoire summoned her staff and finally turned around and smashed the television screen. With a delightfully sweet tinkling of glass following, finally... finally, there was silence. Arfoire actually smiled a little, a soft sigh escaping her lips as the serenity of silence finally began to fill her from head to toe.

Or maybe she was really going deaf after all?

Either way, it was nice...

"Mmnn...? I was watching that..."

Wearing an expression that could only be described as laughable, Arfoire turned on her heel, mouth and eyes wide, to discover Mina gingerly rising from her stupor as if she had been gently jostled awakene by a soft touch or something else that was sweet and innocent and hadn't come after what seemed like an eternity of yelling and screaming and stomping and smashing.

On the bright side, in her attempts to wake Mina up, Arfoire had worked out pretty much all of her nervousness and indecision over the matter, so if she ignored the fact that her ears were still ringing, she was at least going to be going into this encounter with her A game.

"About damn time, Mina." Arfoire started pointedly, returning her weapon back to where it belonged before crossing her arms and giving the blue haired woman another once over. She looked as though she was torn between going right back to sleep and perhaps thinking she still WAS asleep. "Mina. Get up."

It took a few moments for Mina to show some kind of reaction. Arfoire had always known patience was something of a requirement when it came to dealing with Mina and had thus prepared herself for that, especially considering there should have been no possible reason for the two to so much as ever speak to each other again. It was perfectly understandable for anyone in Mina's situation to be wary right now, even if Mina herself had never been much of an understandable person.

Mina stood. She was reaching underneath her clothes and scratching her belly, giving Arfoire a tired look up and down.

"I need a drink."

Arfoire narrowed her eyes.

"Like hell you do."

Mina didn't respond to Arfoire. Instead, she began muttering about headaches and unwanted visitors and began stumbling around her filthy excuse for a room, presumably in search of more alcohol. While Arfoire didn't particularly care too much about how the woman screwed her life up on her own time, right now, she was on Arfoire's clock, and Arfoire wasn't in the mood to watch any of this.

"I'll smash more than your boob tube if you don't start taking this seriously, Mina." Arfoire warned. She had yet to move, but she liked to think her words still carried as much weight with the Oracle as they used to. "You know I wouldn't visit this dump just to say hello."

"You wouldn't say hello anyway." Mina remarked offhandedly, still not facing Arfoire. She did stop searching around the room, tossing the empty bottle in her hand to the side, but she wasn't looking at Arfoire yet even so. Finally, the woman ran a hand through her hair, sighing. "Look, what do you want? I don't bother you on your... whatever. You still doing that farming thing?"

"I am." Arfoire kept her tone civil now that Mina was finally taking her somewhat seriously, but she was already reconsidering this entire idea.

"Yeah, good for you." Mina's tone, meanwhile, made it clear she thought the complete opposite of what she was saying. "So you're happy doing that, giving back to the world, feeding people, repenting for your sins, whatever bullcrap you want to call it. Point is, Lowee doesn't bother you. So why're you bothering us?"

Mina sounded annoyed, exasperated either.

Arfoire, for her part, was doing her best not to snap at the woman.

Repenting for her sins? Is that what Mina thought about her?

The nerve of...

Arfoire deflated somewhat as she let the words sink in.

Maybe, in a way, there was some truth to that. It certainly wasn't entirely true, Arfoire knew that much for certain. But perhaps, subconsciously, maybe she had been doing that...?

Arfoire lowered her gaze. She had left the life that she had for many reasons she had been aware of. The largest was, of course, was that that world was simply too dark, too hopeless, to put up with without a beacon of hope like Neptune there. She had also found that she really could do more outside of it all, helping those who needed it, that kind of thing. The people she had gathered together at her farm and the farm's success were both proof of that, right?

And yet... Maybe...

Had she been atoning...?

But...

She didn't...

"Hey, earth to Arfoire?"

Arfoire quickly stashed those thoughts away, deep inside the little box inside of her with the rest of the thoughts like that. She was here for a reason, and she wasn't about to let this drunk get to her and distract her from that reason. Not when Neptune was counting on her, even if Neptune didn't know she was yet. She had no idea what she would be able to accomplish here, truthfully, but she was sure as hell going to try.

"I'm not here to bother you-"

"Well you are." Mina was all too quick to interrupt and point this out. Arfoire glared at her.

"Are you going to let me finish? The sooner I'm done here, the sooner you can get back to wasting your life." Arfoire knew she should have probably been more polite, considering she was the one who wanted something here, but she could never approve of Mina's lifestyle. It just wasn't healthy, and it hurt the people around her to boot.

"Fine, fine. Go right on ahead..." Mina made a dismissive gesture with her hand, raising the other to jam a finger up one of her nostrils, as if digging around there was far more important than whatever Arfoire might have to say. Arfoire shuddered involuntarily and looked away.

"Anyway, I'm not here about you and I'm probably not here about Lowee." Arfoire paused. Mina was a bum and honestly, if Neptune had just up and appeared, there might not be any trail at all. Still... She had to try, right? "Has anything strange happened recently? In the world? I can't follow what's going on in the nations as easily as I used to, but I've had this... This feeling."

Arfoire waited, expecting to be brushed off. Mina didn't respond, instead choosing to remove her finger from her nose and examine what was on it, as if appraising it. As Arfoire felt like she was accomplishing nothing here, Mina wiped her finger on her dress and spoke.

"You've still got it, huh? Even as a friggin farmer you've still got game..." Mina sighed, collapsing onto the couch. She looked tired again, but rather than being tired from screwing around, it looked like a more genuine tiredness, a tiredness that came from working. Mina looked at Arfoire, a crooked smile growing on her lips. "Want my job? You'd prob'ly be better at it."

"I would be, but I don't." Arfoire kept any further comments to herself, including any comments about how the only reason she knew anything was going on was because a lookalike of a dead CPU had been dropped off on her doorstep. "So something really is going on?"

Mina sighed, sinking into the couch. She closed her eyes and looked up at the ceiling.

"Hell if I know what, but yeah. Planeptune's up to something." Mina paused, before giving Arfoire a nasty sort of smirk. "Well, they're always up to something these days over there, what with that lunatic running things now."

"So why is it different now?" It took more continued effort on her part, but Arfoire held her tongue. She was, despite everything, actually getting some information here, which was more than she had been hoping for after she had seen Mina.

Though Planeptune of all nations acting up at the same time as Neptune appeared... Was it a coincidence? Was there a connection? Which had come first?

"They're being... quiet." Mina finally answered, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she spoke. "Usually they're pretty obvious, and then they get into it with Tari or Lastation like they always do, but they've been really quiet. Everybody else is doing the usual, but them... They're doing something different this time."

Arfoire scowled. The mention of the nation's former ally made her uncomfortable. Just another thing that had gone to ruin after Neptune, her Neptune, had been killed. Considering how little they had helped after the fact, though... Arfoire wasn't too broken up about it.

"Nothing concrete though." Arfoire commented after a moment's consideration. Ultimately, it could simply be a coincidence. Arfoire knew that things had been going badly for Nepgear ever since she had become the nation's CPU. She could very well just be preparing something new, and her doing that during the same time period that Neptune had appeared could mean nothing. "Maybe I was wrong..."

"Wouldn't be the first time." Ever the helpful one, Mina was all too happy to give her opinion on the matter. "Can you go now? That's all you wanted, right? No more dumb questions?"

"That's all." Arfoire felt defeated. For some reason, she had really thought that something would come from this. Something she could use to help Neptune. She didn't know why, in hindsight. Mina could be lying to her for all she knew, and there would be nothing she could do about that.

Of course, the truth was that Lowee was a fairly self-absorbed nation. Compared to the other nations, which were so intent on battling each other and keeping an eye on the movements of their enemies, Lowee just wanted to such in more citizens. Once they had them, after all, they would almost never leave, and with that, they could continue to survive.

No... If Arfoire wanted to get information on the goings on in the world, if something even incredibly minor had changed...

Arfoire narrowed her eyes and started for the door. Neither of those options were particularly appealing.

As she reached for the doorknob, Arfoire paused. This would probably be the last time she saw Mina for a long time, assuming she ever saw her again.

If there was one thing that had always bothered Neptune... If there was one thing about Lowee, about any nation maybe, that could get her genuinely angry...

Suspecting it would be a pointless act, Arfoire turned back and watched Mina for a moment. She seemed to be looking around for something, probably a drink. Arfoire already knew the answer to what she was going to ask now, but... For Neptune, she had to. She couldn't at least not try.

"How are the twins?"

Mina glanced up, looking surprised. Her surprise quickly shifted into frustration and disgust as she saw the look on Arfoire's face, however, and Arfoire was already turning back around, her stomach churning at the look she had seen on Mina.

"Those little shits? Hell if I know. They do what they want, they're probably fine. They're freaking kids and the people know not to mess with them. They don't need anything else... Oh man. You're not gonna whine at me about them, are ya?"A beat. "Damn, you are! Well you know what? I'm glad that bitchy CPU of yours got herself killed! I don't need anybody telling me what to-"

Arfoire slammed Mina's door behind her, hard, before leaning against it. Her breathing was ragged. She was shaking somewhat, whether in anger or sadness, she wasn't sure. Perhaps it was both.

She stood there for a moment, trying to regain herself.

"I'm sorry."

Her words were quiet. It didn't matter if anyone else heard them.

The person she was talking to was long gone.


	13. Chapter 13

Ram's secret hideout, if it was anything at all, was at least something Neptune felt safe calling "secret" and "hidden out."

It was turning out to be quite a bit of a walk, but after getting towards the outskirts of Lowee, Neptune had gotten the distinct feeling that there weren't as many people around. Maybe there weren't any at all, actually. It was a sort of sixth sense she attributed to her experiences as being the best protagonist ever. When there were people around, you could tell. It didn't matter whether or not they were there looking at you, you were still gonna smash their stuff and see if there was money inside (well, Neptune didn't personally do that, being a goddess and all, but she liked to think Falcom or some of her other friends did when they were short on money and couldn't get a quest), but you knew. Likewise, when somewhere was totally deserted, you just knew that too.

The weird thing about it all was that there were still a lot of buildings around. Neptune had noticed earlier how weird some of the architecture of Lowee was, how it had seemed designed to look like something it wasn't, but this area took it to a whole new level. It was like an entire section of the city had been built just so it looked good from an outsider's perspective. Once you were up close, Neptune could tell without issue that it was deserted. The buildings were empty, in many cases the insides of them weren't even finished... It was really creeping her out. It was kind of upsetting too. The people in that town could have easily been living happily in this space without bothering anyone, but instead they were stuck where they were while this place just sat around like a ghost town.

And Ram had led her along as if all of this was normal.

It was this drastically contrasting view to her own, once again, that made Neptune think twice about commenting on it. The fact that Ram probably normally just flew here (Neptune would have bet on it) given how out of the way it was, and was only walking to appease Neptune, was another reason to not comment on what Ram probably considered to be "normal" and "good." At least not now, anyway, if at all.

Then again, as Neptune watched Ram skip ahead of her, considering how Arfoire clearly viewed this place, Neptune supposed her reaction as an outsider wasn't so abnormal after all. Maybe that was why Lowee was putting on this charade in the first place.

In that moment, Neptune was struck with a strange sense of camaraderie towards Arfoire. It was unexpected and took her completely off guard, causing Neptune to actually stop walking and bring a hand to her chest as other feelings associated with the woman, feelings she had been trying to ignore, quickly rose to the surface.

Ram continued on ahead of her for a moment, but Neptune just watched her, caught up in her thoughts. They had ceased holding hands a while back, Ram content to lead the way. She seemed so strangely content just in being in Neptune's company that it had just made Neptune wonder. What kind of relationship had she had with the other Neptune? For that relationship to even exist in the first place, what kind of person was that Neptune? She had heard from Arfoire, but she could also tell Arfoire had (hidden) reasons to be biased. That someone else thought so highly of this other Neptune, though... It really made Neptune think. Her thoughts quickly started shifting into another direction, however, as she realized that they weren't so alone after all.

"Ram, watch out! There are monsters coming! Don't worry, I'll get 'em!"

Instinctively, Neptune pulled out her sword and started running towards Ram and the two monsters that were quickly approaching the small girl. Large and ferocious looking, Neptune was all set to chop them up into a million pieces. There were the kinds of monsters that typically appeared alone and got their own song on the soundtrack they were so tough, there was no way Neptune was letting Ram get surrounded by a pair of them alone!

... But hold on.

Ram didn't seem to be too alarmed by the monsters...

In fact, rather than attacking, they were coming up next to her. She was even patting one of the enormous things on the head... And it looked like it was liking it! It wasn't looking like it was going to attack her at all! Then, not a moment later, she was slowly turning towards Neptune, a strange, hurt expression on her face. There was surprise there too. And was that denial Neptune saw? The slow head shaking certainly looked like it.

As Neptune skidded to a halt a few yards in front of Ram and the monsters, a duo that clearly apparently meant no harm to Ram at least (they were eyeing Neptune in ways that made her quite uncomfortable), Neptune realized something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

Had this been a set up after all?

No, that couldn't be right. From Ram's expression, it looked like she felt like she, Ram, had been the one set up by Neptune. Over some monsters, though? Monsters, really? Why in the world would some monsters of all things change anything?

Though come to think of it, these were actually the first monsters Neptune had seen up close since coming to this world...

Before Neptune could say or think anything further, the large wolf-like creature let out a low growl. Ram, as if she was suddenly scared of whatever this growl meant, took a step backwards.

A step away from Neptune.

Neptune held up her hands defensively, a worried frown on her face. Whatever was going on, it was bad, it was something she didn't understand, and it was something she didn't like at all.

"Hey, Ram, what's going on? I thought-"

"Who are you?!"

Once again, there was no doubt in Ram's voice. There was no question in her mind. She was, once more, sure of who she was talking to.

Or, in this case, who she wasn't talking to.

With Ram like that, Neptune froze. It drove everything to a halt. She had gone over plenty of ways to break it to her, lots of scenarios where she was the one doing it and could calm the girl down herself. At this point, alone with Ram, she had been sure she had escaped the possibility of Ram figuring her out herself before Neptune had a chance to explain.

Obviously she had been wrong.

And Ram? Ram was clearly forcing herself to so much as look at Neptune, her voice and expression accusing. Betrayed.

"What are you..." Neptune paused. Yeah, she couldn't deny anything now. She had been found out. Her reaction to these monsters must have given her away. Had the other Neptune known them? Which meant... Did Ram know them? Now that was an odd combination, but Neptune didn't really have the time to dwell on it now. Ram looked ready to explode at her, either into tears or into furious words or maybe both. No matter what, Neptune already knew that she absolutely didn't want to be the cause of any more hurt for this girl, but now that seemed impossible. "I... I'm Neptu-"

"You're not!" Ram pointed a finger, a shaking, damning finger towards Neptune. The CPU flinched at the act, looking away despite herself. What else could she do? To Neptune's surprise, and concern as well, Ram slowly fell to her knees, no longer looking at Neptune. "You're not... I knew they said she was dead, but I always... I always hoped..."

Neptune's heart immediately went out to the girl. She couldn't imagine what she was feeling right now, especially when she had no idea what kind of relationship the other Neptune had had with her, but she had seen enough of this Ram to know that hurting her just made her feel terrible. She knew this had been inevitable, but she had been really hoping she could have eased Ram into it, exactly so she could avoid totally shattering her illusions (or worse, the girl herself) like what was happening right now.

Tentatively, Neptune took a step towards Ram. The wolf growled and the dragon tensed, but Neptune paid them no mind. Her level may have been down, but she could take them on without hurting them too badly if she needed to. Wiping them out was out of the question, though, not if she wanted any chance of getting through to Ram.

"Hey, Ram, listen..." Neptune started slowly, taking another step towards Ram. She didn't want to hurt the girl any more than she already had. She had wanted to help her, darn it! Why was this place so screwed up?! "I'm just... I just-"

"You just tricked me." Ram's voice was harder now. It was still accusatory, but now it held some kind of conviction, a conviction that Neptune immediately knew was bad news. Neptune quickly started to try to explain herself, but she was cut off by Ram standing up and summoning a small staff, pointed right at Neptune.

Despite the tense situation, seeing Ram holding such a familiar looking weapon, Neptune found herself sighing in relief, a weak laugh escaping her lips.

"Y'know, I don't want to kill the mood here or anything, but can I just say you have no idea how happy it makes me to see you using that instead of something like a sword or a gun?" Neptune joked weakly, taking a tentative step backwards. She had been fine taking on the monsters, but Ram herself? This called for a serious reconsidering of her strategy. "Not that that'd make any sense to you, but seriously, how about we just talk, maybe we-"

"I'm not gonna let myself be tricked any more!" Ram declared angrily. Tears had finally started to spill, and her expression was one of indignation and betrayal. Neptune felt ashamed, even though she knew she hadn't really done wrong. "I... I won't let anyone walk around pretending to be her! You're gonna pay!"

Neptune had intended to say something like "Now you sound more like the Ram I know." under her breath and maybe take some kind of defensive position and try to figure out what she could say to convince Ram she wasn't the bad guy. Her mind had been running a mile a minute and there wasn't nearly enough time to process anything that was happening. She had intended to start throwing out every excuse that came to mind as she figured out the proper thing to say. She had intended a of things, right then, though it was clear her intentions weren't working out so well today.

When she saw what happened to Ram next (because Neptune couldn't even comprehend the idea that Ram was doing it to herself), everything stopped. She stopped talking, stopped moving, stopped thinking, she even stopped breathing. She could only stare and watch, transfixed and horrified by what she was seeing.

A thick, inky pillar of darkness quickly surrounded Ram, encasing her and swirling around her as if it was trying to consume her whole. Tendrils of cloudy blackness lashed out from it, as if what was happening inside was violent and it wasn't able to completely contain it.

As the darkness began to fade, Neptune immediately understood why Arfoire had scoffed at her own transformation into Purple Heart.

If what she was seeing was typical for transformations of CPUs and Candidates of this world, her own transformation was going to look like a joke in comparison.

Ram's new form was still relatively petite, not unlike the White Sister Neptune was used to. There was still a heavy focus on white too, in a way. From there, though, there just weren't any similarities at all.

Rather than having simple gloves, Ram's hands had transformed into or been covered by sharp, metal claws of some kind. From where the claw "gloves" ended, just past her elbows, metal ran up the sides of her arms and shoulders, before wrapping around her neck and forming some kind of... thing on her back. Her left arm, right from Neptune's viewpoint, was almost entirely covered in spiked armor, whereas the other arm was somewhat bare in comparison, sans the claw and metal strip going up her arm. Her legs were in a similar state, the left more armored than the right, but both with trails of steel snaking their way up her body to her back, and where it all met, metal wings burst from the "thing" on her back. The "thing" began reaching around her torso, wrapping around and covering much of her exposed skin until it formed some kind of armor there as well. As the armor finished forming, a dull light shone on parts of it as red highlights formed all across it, not unlike the pink highlights on the plug suit of the White Sister Neptune knew.

It wasn't as though it was truly a tremendously spiky or jutting affair. It was just so... different than what Neptune was used to that it stood out all the more.

And it was all so wrong.

But what truly finished this transformation, from sweet lookalike to something that would give the twins Neptune knew nightmares (it was sure going to give her a few), was her face.

It was very much the same face Neptune knew Ram took when she transformed, save for one haunting difference.

Her eyes.

Where her eyes should have had whites surrounding them, they had foggy gray. Where her eyes should have had a familiar glowing symbol for a pupil, there was a barely a flicker.

It was like someone had turned off the power and drained all the goodness from them. It was... creepy. They were still clearly Ram's eyes, still clearly capable of doing what eyes did, and yet... Neptune shuddered looking at them.

At last, Ram was finished transforming. Her staff took on a similar transformation, though it was much quicker and much less traumatic than what Neptune had seen Ram just go through. It seemed like it had taken forever, but it had probably only taken a moment.

The newly transformed Ram floated a little off of the ground as transformed CPUs and Candidates tended to do. She looked at Neptune expectantly for a moment, as if she was waiting for something, then shook her head.

"Right... There's no way a dumb faker would be able to transform." Neptune wasn't sure if Ram was talking to her or herself, but it didn't matter. Maybe Ram was having doubts, maybe she wasn't. Whoever she was talking to, Ram not attacking straight away gave Neptune the chance she needed.

Neptune needed to transform too.

Unfortunately, as before, it wasn't instantaneous. It didn't come at all for a few moments, but Neptune didn't dare break her focus. Ram was about to go all out on her, maybe even try to finish her off, and she honestly wasn't sure if she could put up her best fight without transforming. Maybe she could not fight at all. She wouldn't know if she was in a state where she couldn't even defend.

The transformed Ram didn't seem to notice Neptune was doing anything, thankfully it seemed like she was talking to the monsters about something instead of paying attention to Neptune. That quickly became something Neptune soon found herself incredibly thankful for, because it was becoming very apparent that this wasn't coming to her as quickly as it had when she had transformed for Arfoire. But as she started to feel like maybe giving up was a better option, like maybe she should try talking again, she was once again enveloped by a sticky, foggy sensation.

In that moment, it was as though the entire world around her had been covered in a thick fog, a fog that clung to her no matter where she went or what she did. She could feel the Sharicite somewhere in the fog, but it was even further away than it had been before and it felt even weaker than it had as well. Was it because she had spent more time in this world? Or was something going on in hers?

Neptune didn't think on it. She pressed forward, almost swimming through the sickly, sticky fog. This was taking longer than it had with Arfoire. That wasn't good. If it wasn't so clear in her mind that she needed to transform right now, then...!

That urge, that need, that desire; that was what gave Neptune the shove towards the Sharicite that she needed. The desire to help this world, to help Ram, did it for her. As she reached it, it felt like it was a breath of fresh air after she had been drowning for so long.

And just like that, Neptune was back in reality, finding herself surrounded by a familiar shining light.

"What is...?!"

She could hear Ram's voice, and she sounded like she was fairly surprised. It was closer than Neptune had thought Ram had been. Had Ram moved while Neptune had been zoning out trying to transform? Was time moving for all that time Neptune had been zoned out? It didn't matter.

As the light faded, Purple Heart was surprised to find herself kneeling. She quickly came to the conclusion that she must have collapsed to her knees while she had been trying to transform, but having not been mentally there, she hadn't noticed. That... was unsettling. It meant she couldn't rely on this power as much as she thought she could. If she even could at all.

Panting, Purple Heart raised her head... and found herself smirking at what she saw before her.

The transformed Ram had indeed gotten closer, but gone was the antagonistic attitude that she had been previously displaying.

Though she was still in that monstrous form that still was completely alien to Purple Heart, that form that even now unsettled the goddess, Ram's face and body language were another story entirely. She was extremely close to Purple Heart, for one thing. It looked like she had been reaching for her and had just withdrawn her hand (could it even be called a hand anymore?) only seconds ago. Her expression was one of worry, one of concern, one of guilt, and of course, one of confusion. It was those other emotions that interested Purple Heart, however.

She stood to her feet, wiping her brow with the back of her hand, still smirking playfully at the stunned form of the transformed Ram. After a moment, more as a show of proof than anything, Purple Heart let herself begin to float off the ground, hovering just a little bit off it as she normally did.

"You... You actually..."

Purple Heart crossed her arms.

"For all of those mean old accusations you were making before, you actually look pretty worried about me now." Purple Heart's smirk shifted into a small smile. If she could avoid this fight, even if it meant putting up with whatever issues she was having with transforming, she would happily take that route. "Can't we settle this peacefully? I never intended to lie to you. My situation is simply... complicated. I would be more than happy to explain it if you're willing to listen."

Ram surveyed Purple Heart as she straightened herself up. First, she took a moment just to get a little distance between them again, though right now she didn't look nearly as certain as she had in herself a few moments ago. She seemed to be dealing with the shock that Neptune could in fact transform well enough, but the expression on her face still held some kind of hostility to it. It was growing redder still, as if just looking at Purple Heart made her angr-

"W-What is that transformation even supposed to be?! Your boobs are practically hanging out! It's totally gross!"

... or not.

"You think so?" Purple Heart fought back a laugh. It wasn't hard to, considering she was finding herself being filled with relief that it appeared the tension in the air had lessened drastically. "I could say the same thing to you. You're much less covered up than I am, and look at how pointy that is. Isn't it uncomfortable? And having metal like that all over you, covering you like that, I can't imagine it doesn't poke into some really awkward places-"

"S-Shut up!" Much to Purple Heart's growing amusement, the transformed Ram didn't look like she was offended by these observations. If anything, it was as though for the first time in her life, she had realized how... blatant the form was. She was covering the more exposed parts of her body with her arms and glaring at Purple Heart, a furiously deep blush staining her cheeks. It was almost surreal, that hilarious Ram-like expression combined with those haunting definitely-not-Ram-like eyes. "T-This is what we're supposed to look like! Neptune looked like it too when she transformed, you dumb faking fake faker!"

That was certainly sobering, for Purple Heart at least. While her amusement at the situation lessened quickly as she let that sink in, Ram seemed to still be preoccupied with Purple Heart's comments, shifting awkwardly and trying to cover as much as she could to little avail. It wasn't as if Purple Heart had really been bothered or anything, Vert and Plutia easily showed off more when they transformed and she saw that regularly. But the fact that it lightened things up like this, sort of, that worked for her.

"You must at least be able to realize that, if I can transform, I _am_ a CPU, right, Ram?" Purple Heart offered tentatively, after waiting a few moments for Ram to eventually decide she didn't care what Purple Heart thought about her appearance. It had broken the ice, at least. "Shouldn't that at least warrant you hearing what I have to say? If I had wanted to hurt you, I could have done it easily. Repeatedly too. In fact, didn't you only figure out I'm not who you thought I was because I was trying to protect you?"

Once again, Purple Heart was struck by how... human this form of Ram's was capable of looking. Despite how such an aura of wrongness continued to surround the girl, despite how everything about how she looked just made Purple Heart want to shake her until she turned back to normal, those expressions were so... real. It really made her realize, different as they were here, there was a lot to be found that was the same too.

Ram was torn, clearly. Purple Heart was obviously right, but Ram was being stubborn for some reason. She didn't want and wasn't going to let someone "impersonate" the Neptune she knew while she was on watch. But she wasn't dumb, either, and Purple Heart's logic was sound enough for even the stubborn Ram of her own world to pause.

It took a little, but finally, Ram lowered her shoulders somewhat. She looked suspicious, incredibly so, but at the same time... Purple Heart could tell there was some genuine curiosity there.

She could also tell that Ram was using both of those things to hide what must have been overwhelming her from the moment she realized the truth. She had gotten her hopes up and they had been smashed to pieces, and despite that, she was still doing a fairly decent job of keeping her composure, all things considered. Arfoire hadn't even been this good about it, come to think of it!

"Fine... But I'm still gonna beat you up if I think you're lying!" Even though her words were clearly a warning, her voice said better. She wanted something out of this. Maybe she couldn't have her Neptune, but perhaps she was in such a state that...

Purple Heart pushed those thoughts, assumptions really, away, feeling rather ashamed at herself for considering them. She didn't know this Ram nearly well enough to jump to any sort of conclusions, and the one she had been heading towards had been particularly cruel.

"I'll let you go first if it comes to that, but you won't be beating me up." Purple Heart responded, hoping to sound both stern and playful at the same time. The message seemed to get across, at which point she deemed it safe to approach Ram.

And once again, Purple Heart found herself explaining everything. It seemed to come easier the second time around, perhaps in part because Ram was someone she "knew," but also perhaps because she was acclimated enough to this world now to know just the sort of things to avoid saying. She just hoped that when it came time to tell a third person her story, whoever it might be and whenever she did it, that no troubling transformations or almost fights would be involved.

Little did Purple Heart know that a third person would be hearing her story much sooner than she had anticipated, and, after tailing Neptune for the better part of the day, was currently hearing _everything_ loud and clear.


	14. Chapter 14

Telling her story to Ram had been simple enough for Purple Heart so far, at least as far as the actual telling of it went. After getting over the basic premise of it all, Ram didn't interject much, and when she did, it was usually only to ask for clarification on something or to react to something that seemed unbelievable (though most of her louder reactions had been early on, for now she seemed to be processing more than anything; she had gotten pretty quiet once Purple Heart had mentioned how close her world's White Sisters were). Purple Heart still couldn't tell how much of it Ram believed and how much of it Ram simply accepted in order to be able to hear the entire story out before she passed judgement, but whatever the reason was, Ram was letting Purple Heart tell her story without much issue from her.

That is... Ram was.

Something else, on the other hand, was starting to make it a bit difficult to keep speaking. It was distracting, to say the least.

The more Purple Heart went on, the more and more apparent it became that something felt... well, strange. Something about herself at that. She hadn't noticed it at first, but she was slowly coming to the realization that her transformation worries didn't end with how difficult it was to simply do it in the first place.

At some point, Purple Heart had ceased to keep up the usual floating that CPUs tended to do, instead placing her feet on the ground. Ram had noticed, even said something, but Purple Heart had just kept talking. Even now she had yet to pick up on this fact about herself, nor had she realized right now she wasn't even talking anymore. Ram was watching her intently, waiting, growing more impatient by the moment, but even she was picking up on something not quite being right. The way Purple Heart looked right now, eyes starting to glaze over, it was like she wasn't even there anymore.

To Purple Heart, she simply felt a bit lost in thought, nothing too serious, but in actuality, she was much more than that. From her perspective, however, nothing serious had changed at all yet. She was just...

Finally, Ram couldn't take it anymore. She wasn't worried or anything, not at all, she was just annoyed. Super annoyed. Definitely not worried. She wasn't... listening to what the fake CPU was saying or anything. She was just trying to sort out her annoyances, that's all!

"Hey you, fake Neptune, are you still going to talk or what? I'm waiting!"

Purple Heart didn't feel... sick exactly, just a little... tired. No, not even that was right. Weaker. Drained. There was a strange sensation mixed in there though, and it felt nice. Distracting. She had been fine before her transformation, so why was it that now, when she should have felt even better than she had before, she felt worse? Trying to remember what she was supposed to be doing and coming up with nothing, Purple Heart wondered if she was hurt. Looking at her status, she seemed fine; her health was at full, she wasn't afflicted with any status ailments, and-

As if snapping out of a trance, Purple Heart gasped loudly, staggering backwards in surprise as she realized what was happening to her, her face transfixed in confusion and horror as she actually saw it before her very eyes. She couldn't even begin to understand it, but it was like nothing she had ever seen before, and even as Purple Heart it set off warnings. Alarmed, the transformed Ram raised her staff in a warning sort of gesture, and her expression made it clear that she had no idea what to do.

Fitting, because neither did Purple Heart.

"What are you doing?!" Ram cried out, her confusion evident. After all, why would someone just do something like that in the middle of telling a story? Not that she had been telling it anymore for a minute or two now, but still, it hadn't finished. As if she was going down roads that she had traveled down many times before, she felt familiar sensations and feelings filling her up inside. An almost wild look took her as she questioned Purple Heart, her heart starting to race. "Is this a trick? Were you setting me up?!"

"I..." As she found herself returning to reality, Purple Heart realized she hadn't simply just been distracted. The fact this had even happened surely spoke to whatever was happening. It was as though, if only for a moment (for now the feeling was gone), she was being pulled away. As if something was taking her away, which, considering what she had just seen... It might have not been such a strange theory. Swallowing, she raised herself back into the air and looked back at Ram, who met her even gaze with a wavering one. "Do you... Do you mind if I change back? To the way I was before? I don't think I can stay in this form right now. Something about this world isn't sitting right with my body like this."

Ram was still holding her staff out towards Purple Heart, in the perfect position to strike. It shook somewhat, either showing Ram's uncertainty or just how ready she was to strike at an instant's notice. For a moment, Purple Heart considered the possibility that Ram really was considering taking advantage of the situation and attacking. Truth be told, as unsure as Purple Heart was as to whether or not she could fight on even grounds with the goddesses of this world in her normal form, it appeared doing it in this one was no longer an option. She needed to get out of it as soon as possible.

After another few moments of consideration, Ram closed her eyes. She shook her head. Purple Heart opened her mouth to protest, but Ram's next words, spoken as she lowered her weapon and let out a long, almost relieved breath, made it clear the previous action hadn't been directed towards the CPU, but perhaps the Candidate herself.

"Y-You can if you want, but I don't think I wanna hear anymore anyway."

Purple Heart considered pressing the matter, but she knew she could do that as soon as she returned to normal, which was absolutely her priority right now. Closing her eyes, she let the familiar feeling of transformation wash over her. To her surprise, as soon as she was Neptune again, before she even so much as opened her eyes she could feel that that strange sensation was completely gone.

Unfortunately, the damage it had brought, if it was what had been causing that damage, had not been repaired. Just as Neptune had feared before changing back... Whatever was going on was either related to turning into her CPU form or trying to connect to the Sharicite, which had been much harder to do this time.

Whatever the reason, the results were the same.

Her level had gone down once more. It wasn't nearly as drastic as it had been before, but without a doubt, that number had gone down again.

No... It hadn't just "gone down."

It was being taken. Sucked right out of her. That was the only explanation.

For the first time since she had gotten here, in fact for the first time in a long time anywhere for that matter, Neptune realized that she felt something akin to genuine fear.

That, in itself, scared her even more.

As Neptune tried to let that simmer, she noticed that Ram had yet to speak now that Neptune had returned to normal. Seeing that... sight that was Ram's transformation, Neptune was finally pulled back to the real world. Or this world, anyway. Right now, Neptune couldn't be thinking about her own problems. Ram was here right now and this problem, Lowee's problem, was much more immediate than her own.

In other words? Neptune still had work to do.

"Wooooow, sorry about that!" Neptune offered after a few further moments of awkward silence, though the laugh she had wanted to add couldn't, wouldn't, come. She was still letting this damning new information sink in, whereas it looked like Ram still just couldn't look at her now that she had returned to normal. "I'm feelin' all better now though! This here Nep-Nep is a-okay!"

Ram, still in that super creepy armor mode, finally turned to look at Neptune again. Her expression was... contemplative. One might think it an odd look for someone like Ram, but given how strained it seemed to be, it was both fitting and almost cute. Those darn eyes really killed it though.

"You promise all that was true?" Ram started, raising her staff once more in a defensive motion. Her voice gave little away, but it was enough for Neptune. She was thinking about trusting Neptune but she wasn't sure if she could. Neptune knew that this was probably her one and maybe only chance here: If she burned this bridge now, it would take a hell of a lot of work to repair it. "You aren't just lying some more? You aren't trying to trick me?"

Neptune knew those were fair questions, but she could tell there was more to it than that. There was that same feeling from earlier laced in-between Ram's words, a sort of terrified panic that wanted to trust but felt too be betrayed to consider it. Ram's body language was... not helping. Neptune wasn't totally convinced she was safe yet here, but...

She wouldn't accomplish anything being defensive!

"Do I look like I'm doing any of that?" Neptune asked honestly, holding out her arms to her sides as far as she could, to show Ram she wasn't holding anything back right now. She couldn't let Ram think that she was the enemy here. She wasn't. She wanted to help! "Listen to me...! I may not be your Neptune, I may not even be from your world, but I still wanna be your friend, if you'll let me! That's all! Will you let me do that, Ram?"

It took a moment, but Ram looked like she was going to respond positively. Neptune started to smile, lowering her arms slowly, lowering her defenses completely, waiting for Ram to speak, hoping she would say just what Neptune wanted to hear.

She didn't.

In that moment, when there should have been smiles and an ominous voice telling Neptune in her head she had formed a new Lily Rank, there was nothing of the sort. Instead, Ram's expression changed drastically. Eyes wide, weapon quickly raised once more, expression filled with panic. She started to yell, but she was cut off. The monsters, Ram's monsters, that had been lazing around rose immediately, but they too were cut off. In an instant, in a flash, everything changed and Neptune didn't know why. Neptune didn't understand and she wouldn't understand.

For from behind Neptune, something came flying. A flurry of somethings.

Before Neptune could process what was happening, Ram, back in her "normal" form, was already falling to the ground, her monsters following after her. It only took a split second to see how critical the damage was.

Panic!

Move!

Run!

Fight!

Protect!

Instincts took over and battled for dominance. Neptune turned, quickly, pulling her sword out of her inventory and readying herself for the worst.

But whatever the worst was, it had been more than ready for her.

The only thing Neptune managed to see before she fell helplessly to the ground, subject to a fresh onslaught of whatever got Ram, was cold, black steel.

* * *

She let out a satisfied breath of air as she made her way out of the surf. Water dripped down her body as the sun beat down on her bare skin. She could already feel the heat and rays of the sun competing with the breeze to see which would dry her off first. No need to tarnish her perfect, tanned skin with something as imperfect as a cheap, rough beachside towel. She ran a hand through her brown hair, a pleased noise escaping her lips as she shook her head gently to let the remaining droplets fly.

Bliss. That was the only word for life in Lowee. Pure bliss.

It was the greatest nation in Cruptindustri. As far as she was concerned, it was the only nation, really. What those other places did, they didn't matter. They would never surpass Lowee. It was a universal truth, a fact, just as the grass was green, the sky had clouds, and she was the most beautiful woman that had ever existed and would ever exist. Simple facts that were understood the world over.

As she continued her way across the sand, she could feel more and more eyes on her with each step she took. It brought a smile to her face. Naturally, these simple people couldn't take their eyes off of their goddess, who was more than simply a goddess in title, position, or strength. She was a goddess in every meaning of the word, and she knew from the way her people gazed at her that every last one of them knew it.

She would allow for nothing less, after all. The idea that there was less in this world was simply unacceptable in her eyes... No, to her, it just didn't even exist. Not unless she was forced to deal with it, but once dealt with, the world's rightful order would be restored.

She turned slightly, raising a perfect, toned arm to block the sunlight as she gazed towards the sky. She stood like that for a moment, before lowering her arm, as if she was challenging the very sun itself, daring it to make itself no longer worthy of a being as magnificent as herself. Naturally, it didn't stand a chance before _her_.

Unflinching, she stayed like that for a few moments, surely making those around stare in awe even more than they normally felt the need to, before turning away once more. She ran a hand through her hair as she resumed walking, her smile not only unwavering, but growing. She was completely dry now. As was expected of a goddess... No, _the_ goddess.

She briefly wondered how she should spend the rest of her day. She could return to the Basilicom for another workout in her personal gym, but she knew that wouldn't be necessary. She had spent the morning there, spending the perfect amount of time there to perfect her perfect body even further. She didn't want to do too much and end up looking like some kind of barrel throwing gorilla, but if she were to slip up even a little, she ran the risk of ending up like a common pipe exploring plumber.

She was always working, constantly making herself the pinnacle of beauty and power; the epitome of _perfection_. It was her life's work. It was a harshness that few could understand or comprehend, but not many were able to understand the greatness of an incredible being such as herself. In fact, only _she_ could truly comprehend how magnificent she was.

But what to do today? How she spent her time was a decision she just couldn't make lightly. Decisions like this were some of the most important she could make. After all, how she spent her time... What was more important? She could think of nothing offhand, and if _she_ couldn't think of it, then it must not exist.

She sighed softly.

Sometimes she envied the simple people.

They just didn't know how great they had it.

* * *

Arfoire fought the urge to buy a drink just so she can something to kick as she aimlessly made her way down the sidewalks of Lowee.

Now that she had gone and seen Mina, a decision she was wondering even now if she should regret or not, Arfoire realized she had no idea where to go or how to proceed next. The main thing she had wanted to do without Neptune being around had been done... to questionable levels of success, but it was at least done. When she had arrived here in Lowee, she had assumed she would need to sneak away in order to pull that off. As it turned out, she hadn't needed to do anything of the sort, which left her in somewhat of a pickle.

Now what?

She didn't have to go find Neptune immediately. Part of her certainly wanted to, for sure, but at the same time, Arfoire felt as though if Neptune wanted to be found, she would be. That just seemed to be the kind of person Neptune, this Neptune, was. Whatever she was doing was probably taking up her attention more than wanting to find Arfoire probably was.

Arfoire didn't want to think too much about it, and yet...

"She's probably either still mad or she's gotten herself into trouble..." Arfoire mused to herself. Neither option seemed like a particularly desirable one. Once again she felt the desire to call the farm and talk to one of the others there, but she knew she couldn't do that while in one of the major nations' capitals of all places. That left her, essentially, stranded here in one of the places she least wanted to be in the world.

At least Lowee wasn't close to Planeptune. It wasn't much, and a basic fact that was so basic it felt like cheating to use that as reason to find solace in this situation, but it was true.

Without Neptune around, now that she had visited the Basilicom, she really was out of things to do that she needed to do on her own. In fact, being alone in Lowee was one of the last situations she wanted to find herself in, now that she really thought about it. Perhaps she had been foolish before. She had been lucky so far, but she had no idea how long that would last. In the back of her mind, a familiar sinking feeling, a familiar sense of panic, was starting to set in, but Arfoire paid it no mind, choosing instead to redirect her thoughts.

It was a feeling that brought her back to just after she had left Planeptune. She had been running and she had been incredibly lost. It hadn't even remotely been easy to get to the stage she had finally arrived at and become the person she was today.

Scowling, Arfoire kicked at the ground. So much for redirecting her thoughts. A more serious attempt was probably in order.

Unfortunately, the reason she was here was (a) Neptune, and any Neptune was more than enough to get her mind going places.

But this one... This one was the one she had to deal with now. It was the only one there was anymore, after all.

Realistically, Neptune could be doing just about anything right now, right? It's not like Arfoire knew her that well or anything like that. Their fight proved that fact easily enough. While her being mad was certainly an option, given the events that had led to that fight, if Arfoire really thought about it now that she wasn't being distracted by the immediate feelings of just coming from the fight, considering how stubborn the girl seemed to be...

Trouble seemed like the much more realistic option.

Arfoire's pace started to slow as she considered this. Trouble could mean a lot of things. It could mean anything or it could mean nothing. Neptune could be charging into the Basilicom, ready to unknowingly start a war, just as much as she could be talking to some random citizen of Lowee and telling them they could do better. Though she had gotten the gist of what Neptune felt, she couldn't say for sure what that kind of attitude was going to accomplish here.

Though Arfoire certainly had an idea of what it could earn Neptune, not to mention what it would cost her.

Clenching her fists as a certain memory flashed briefly before Arfoire's eyes, the memory of what she considered to be the worst moment of her life, she picked up her pace. After a few moment moments, Arfoire broke out into a run.

Screw it... Screw it all!

Screw the fight, screw her pride, screw Neptune's pride, screw whatever the hell Neptune was doing right now! She could do it with Arfoire nagging her if it was that important, but Arfoire wasn't letting that ignorant punk do it alone...!

"I can't... I won't let that happen ever again!"

At the time, Arfoire had no idea that she might have already been too late.


	15. Chapter 15

It was a typical day in Lastation's Basilicom. Employees were scurrying around and doing the day's work, many people were sitting at desks and found themselves working hard on various kinds of paperwork, monitors across the building displayed various types of information, and all in all, it seemed like a building in which a lot was getting done. Considering Lastation's standing in the world, it wouldn't be that much of a leap to think that even without seeing the inside of the Basilicom.

A closer look at things, however, would reveal some not-so-hidden truths.

Many of those working were actually only trying to look like they were working, filing and unfiling and then refiling the same things over and over again. Some of the monitors that were flashing in front of gathered employees were in fact showing things that were decidedly not even remotely work related. Though some of them certainly were working, most of them seemed to only be appearing to work.

Indeed, it was a typical day in Lastation's Basilicom. Their CPU was nowhere to be seen, naturally, but no one questioned that whatever she was doing, it was for the better of Lastation. Their nation was rising to be the unquestionable top of Cruptindustri, there was certainly no reason to think their leader, their goddess, was doing anything but work in their best interests.

Besides, since they had gotten out of having to join the army and be sent off to the other nations, why not relax while the fine young men and women of Lastation's army pressed onwards around the world?

Yes indeed, just another typical day at the Lastation Basilicom.

In the midst of all of this, Kei Jinguji received a call.

Kei had been one of the ones working prior to receiving the call. She was almost always working, or so it appeared, though the simple employees rarely understood the things they saw the woman working on... if they were ever so lucky as to see the great Kei Jinguji at work in the first place, that is. She kept to her office most of the time, but none ever questioned her. Like their CPU, Kei worked constantly for the betterment of Lastation.

If anyone had heard the phone calls that took place in Kei's office that afternoon, they might change their tune.

The petite woman raised a curious brow as her phone began to ring. No one should be calling her. She always knew when to expect someone and when not to, and this moment, this whole day in fact, was very much in the "not" category. She thought about ignoring it as she considered who it might be, but then a smirk began to spread across her lips.

No... One person would be calling her, wouldn't they? They were a little early though...

Forcing a laugh down, Kei took a deep breath, put on the most serious expression she could muster, and picked up the phone, clearing her throat as she did. Business face, Kei, business face.

"Uni? I wasn't expecting your call for a few days. Has something changed? What's going on?"

There was an affirmative noise.

"I'm still in Lowee, that hasn't changed. I started right away with sabotaging a supply ship, like you suggested, and then I proceeded to move into..."

Kei swirled around in her chair as she listened to the voice on the other line, unable to fight a grin spreading from ear to ear now. She knew to keep it out of her voice at least, but she just loved hearing when things went her way.

"... spotted one of the CPU Candidates. After following her to a secluded spot, I... 'took her' with me. She's unconscious right now, though she won't be able to fight back even if she wakes up. She's very injured, but I'm keeping her stable enough so it's not life threatening. I need her alive right now."

The voice on the other end paused. When it resumed speaking, the "matter of fact" tone had diminished somewhat. It was still there, as it always was, but in place of the bits that had gone were the faintest traces of accomplishment, excitement, and an unconscious desire for praise.

Kei knew the girl far too well to miss any change in her, and that desire would undoubtedly be Uni's undoing someday. It was what had eventually driven her down this path after all... Oh, silly little Uni thought so highly of herself, but Kei knew the truth. She also knew already that Uni was hiding something from her, but she didn't care. This was too big to care.

"I think this is going to really do something for me... For us, Kei. Noire will never see this coming, and by the time she does, it will be way too late. There's already nothing she can do now!"

At that point, Kei lost it. She covered the phone's mouthpiece and burst into a fit of hysterical laughter. It was just too much! Too much! It was too much, it was too much!

This girl was _a complete and total idiot_!

"Kei? Are you there?"

It took her a bit, but Kei managed to get herself under control quickly enough. Both of these sisters had given her plenty of chances to practice that particular skill.

"The connection. It was the connection." Kei gave a simple enough answer, not intending to give Uni enough time to think about it. She wanted to know what in the everloving hell this girl was thinking. "What makes you so confident in this? This could backfire on you very easily. All Noire has to do is say she wasn't involved and blame you and Lowee won't care."

To Kei's surprise, Uni didn't falter. In fact, as she continued, she sounded even more confident.

Kei... Kei didn't like that. She didn't like not being ahead of the game. She didn't like that at all.

"If she does any of that, she'll just be hurting herself. Lowee won't care what she says, if I can convince them Lastation was involved, it won't matter to them if it was me or her. They'll be out for Lastation blood, and right now, with her in charge... Lastation blood means her." Uni paused on the other end. Kei wasn't sure if she was thinking something or checking something, but Kei didn't think that was all. Even if it was, it was good reasoning.

Too good.

Uni might have been seriously overestimating how much Lowee (or at least those running it) would really care about one of their Candidates going missing, potentially dying even, but other than that, the logic was sound. Politically speaking, they would probably have to care to save face anyway. And what's more... Kei got the feeling there was more to it too. She felt like Uni had put even more thought into this.

Kei already knew Uni was hiding something though, so who's to say she wasn't hiding more here?

Since when had this punk grown a spine like this...?

"You know, Uni..." Kei started, putting on her tried and true "genuine" voice. It had never failed her before, especially not with Uni, and she doubted it would now just because Uni was starting to act out of line, outside of Kei's plans and expectations. "I'm impressed with how much thought you've put into this. You've really come a long way."

As true as it was that Kei was only actually saying this to try to ease more information out of Uni, it bugged the hell out of her that it actually was true. She was still used to being able to read Uni like a book.

Kei paused to let her words sink in, let Uni start feeling guilty for keeping things from the only person she had left, and then... Time for the clincher.

"I'm proud of you."

Just as Kei hoped, that did the trick. Whatever reservations Uni had had about speaking had been quashed with ease, and Uni was speaking even more earnestly now.

Kei couldn't help but sneer happily as Uni spoke. She hadn't grown that much after all.

"Think about it, Kei. What will everyone in Lastation think if she starts giving the credit away for something like this? If they think she isn't capable of striking out against Lastation's enemies herself? They'll start losing faith in her, of course! And that's just what I want. So let her tell everyone I did it. Let her act like she doesn't want to be associated with it. They'll just start seeing which of us they want to be behind more."

Kei nodded, both to Uni's points and to herself. She was starting to be in a good mood again.

Uni probably wouldn't be soon though.

"You're absolutely right. Sharp as always, Uni."

Kei could almost see the smile on Uni's face as they exchanged farewells. Uni would be trying to hide it, trying to look tough and serious and grown up, like she was better than feeling proud of herself, like she was this mission oriented robot, but she would still have this tiny smile on her face as she celebrated this little victory she thought she had earned. She would really believe she had gotten somewhere in her quest.

What a moron.

Once she hung the phone up, Kei found she could barely contain her laughter. Tears began to escape from her eyes she was laughing so hard. Her stomach actually started to hurt she was laughing with such pure mirth, but even that couldn't stop her just yet.

She enjoyed the moment for as long as she possibly could, but as soon as it started to fade, she cleared her throat once more and picked up her phone, dialing a very familiar number. It was time for the next move, and it wasn't going to be Uni making it.

"Hello, Noire? I hope you're sitting down right now. Uni's _really_ done it this time..."

This feud these two had going was really something else, but what was really something else was that neither of them had realized Kei had been feeding information back and forth since before it had even started.

The Oracle smiled happily as she listened to Noire, already planning on her own next move.

No matter which one of these idiot sisters lost this thing, Kei was going to be the real winner here.

* * *

Why was it that every time she woke up lately, she was in an incredible amount of pain?

Neptune let out a groan as she slowly sat up. Everything hurt. It wasn't just a matter of having been taken off guard; whatever the heck had gotten her and Ram like that had been strong. Crazy strong. Stronger than Neptune had had to deal with in a long time, and clearly the same went for Ram as well.

"Hey. Wait a minute..." Neptune went over that thought again. The pain made it a bit hard to process, but luckily she had been getting practice dealing with that kind of thing lately. Her eyes widened as she recalled fully what had happened. "Ram... Ram! Ram!"

Letting out worried cries for the Candidate, Neptune grabbed her sword, still laying where she had dropped it, and used it to help steady herself as she stood up. She kept yelling and yelling, but to no avail. There was no response.

In her worry for Ram, she hadn't paid it any mind initially. As she spun around calling the girl's name during those first few moments, she paid no mind to it. It was a sight that not only was she used to, but a sight that she often caused on occasion. Compared to the missing CPU Candidate, it wasn't noteworthy at all.

Yet as Neptune's yells became less frequent, in the hopes that she might hear a response from Ram somewhere, she realized that, right before her very eyes, something terrible was happening.

Ram may have been nowhere to be seen, but those monst... No, _Ram's_ monsters were still here.

They were dying.

Neptune didn't know what she was thinking, but, with the help of her sword, she was limping over to them before she knew it.

What was she doing?

She saw monsters all the time, and that included dying ones. She had been in more dungeons over the years than she would ever be able to count. She beat them herself, dashed past them to complete quests as they fought each other; she was so used to it that if she didn't see monsters moving, they were practically just more trees in the background. It was why she hadn't noticed these this time... And yet...!

Neptune tossed her sword aside and fell to her knees next to the pair of them. They were huge, of course, and they were clearly strong offshoots of the fenrir and dragon races, but they couldn't be less threatening if they tried. The wolf's chest went up and down in a slow, painful manner, whereas the dragon was gasping for breath, clinging to life with what little it had left. Unlike the wolf, which was weakly looking at Neptune now, the dragon didn't even seem able to recognize that she had approached them.

They weren't going to last the next few minutes.

Neptune wasn't sure what she should do. Ram was the priority, right? But Ram cared about these monsters and she wanted to show Ram she was good, so...? But was now the time to try to do things like this...?!

"Oh forget it!"

Confused and knowing she just didn't have nearly enough time to be, Neptune whipped out some items and got to work. She could fix herself up later, but right now, these two needed more help than she did. She didn't know how effective the items would be on monsters or if they would even work at all, but she just knew she would never forgive herself if she didn't try.

And who knew? Maybe in this world monsters weren't even bad things in the first place, in which case she would have let Ram's pets die with even less justification. And letting them die already would have had pretty flimsy justification as it was!

Glad that Arfoire had let her stock up on everything she could need, Neptune found herself with more than enough to restore the monsters back to full health. She wasn't sure how they would react to this, and to be quite honest, she had yet to think that far ahead yet. All that she was thinking about was how Ram valued these monsters and, therefore, it would be wrong to let them die. Simple as that.

"Whew..." After what seemed like a great deal of effort (monsters were a lot bigger when you weren't just randomly slashing at them), Neptune found herself falling backwards onto the ground, the monsters no longer appearing to be in any danger. She let out a sigh of relief as she wiped some sweat from her brow, closing her eyes and breathing in deeply. "That takes care of that problem... But I still don't know where Ram is..."

Had she made the wrong call? Should she have left them to die and started looking immediately?

Even as she wondered that, she knew the answer.

She had no idea how long it had been. Whoever had taken Ram (because Ram certainly wouldn't have left her friends like that) might be long gone. Leaving the monsters to die wouldn't have accomplished anything except that the person who attacked Ram might find themselves suddenly getting more experience points and Ram might have another reason to hate Neptune.

Basically, no victories to be had there.

"Still... No reason to stick around now though..." Neptune stretched her arms out behind her, groaning in pain as she did so. It was about time to heal herself now, huh? Hopefully she had enough items left over for herself... "Let's see here... Huh?"

As Neptune sat up to look over herself and get to fixing up her own injuries, she saw the strangest sight... since the last strange sight she saw here, anyway, which wasn't that long ago considering just about everything here was strange.

So it wasn't technically that strange, but right then it seemed to be the strange icing on the strange cake.

The wolf-like monster was sitting down in front of Neptune, much like a well trained dog would sit before their master. Next to it, the dragon was standing at attention, like some kind of... dragon butler or something. Unless it was a girl, then it was a dragon maid, maybe...?

"Um..." Neptune blinked a few times, rubbing one of her eyes as if to confirm that she was seeing straight. It seemed like she was indeed. The monsters that had been so wary of her before now seemed positively welcoming. She supposed saving lives did that kind of thing. "Can I... do something for you...?"

Neptune almost passed out again when the dragon actually nodded at her question. The wolf, meanwhile, got up and began walking away.

"What? I don't speak monster- Or quiet! I definitely don't speak quiet! I can't translate your dog ellipses here, okay...? Hey!" Though Neptune continued to call after the wolf, stomping her foot a few times for good measure, it continued to move on ahead, as if... Neptune's eyes widened in recognition, and she turned to the dragon, who had yet to budge. "Oh, I get it! You want me to come with you guys? Is that it?"

Once again, the dragon nodded. Neptune half-expected it to follow after the other monster, but it made no such movements. Apparently it was waiting for her.

"At least one of you is polite..." The goddess grumbled to herself, getting some healing items for herself out as she began following after the wolf monster.

Obviously, the walk with the monsters wasn't the most... engaging. Neptune tried on no less than four occasions to start a conversation, but obviously, responses were somewhat limited. She knew that, even more than her, these monsters cared about Ram though, and therefore they wouldn't take her somewhere when she could be looking around if they didn't think it was going to be helpful.

At long last, they arrived. Or at least Neptune figured they had. No longer was the wolf traveling down empty streets, instead it was going inside a hollow looking skyscraper. A hole had been blasted in the side of it, though from the looks of things, it wasn't a new hole.

"This must be Ram's 'hideout.'" Neptune mused to herself, and when the dragon next to her nodded in confirmation, she immediately picked up her speed. She didn't know what to expect inside, she doubted Ram had gotten away and made her way here, but...! Something surely important must be here waiting for her...!

... and yet...

Upon actually entering the building, Neptune found herself feeling let down. She wasn't even sure what she had been hoping for, but...

The walls were all painted with childish graffiti. It was like looking at large-scale versions of the drawings she had seen the twins make in her world. Where there weren't large drawings on the walls, other things were stuck there. Pictures, either taken or also drawn, were taped messily around the vicinity (it looked like other walls and even the ceiling had been destroyed to accomodate the monsters), and there were shelves with toys and games on them around as well. Further back, there were shelves packed more nearly that seemed to have different kinds of supplies on them, but...

While it was certainly what a child might consider a hideout, that didn't tell Neptune why she was here. It didn't seem like anything was hidden either, though obviously if it was hidden she would need to look harder for it, yet if the monsters had brought her here for something, it probably wouldn't be hidden, right?

Neptune looked around. The wolf-monster (apparently named "Princess Fenrietta" if a nearby drawing was to be believed, meaning the huge thing was a girl on top of everything else) had settled down in what was presumably it-her spot and wasn't doing much of anything now, while the dragon ("Sir Burnsalot") was standing dutifully by the hole that was this little hideout's "entrance." The way he was gazing outside made it seem as though he was either making sure nothing was coming, or perhaps... Keeping an eye out in case something did?

"Are we here to wait for something?" Neptune offered finally. It seemed like the only sensible conclusion. The monsters were no longer trying to do anything with her now that she was here, so it must have been their goal to just get her here, right? Looking from one monster to the other, she frowned. "Is that what you brought me here for, guys?"

The dragon, "Sir Burnsalot," nodded once more, before stepping outside completely. Apparently that meant the conversation was over.

"Okay then. I guess... We can wait a little." Sighing, Neptune stuffed her hands in the pockets of her hoodie and began walking around. The empty building had a very... dry feeling to it for some reason, so she didn't really want to touch anything she didn't have to. When she happened upon some of Ram's games, however, she quickly found she just couldn't help herself.

As Neptune turned the portable device on, she wondered what they were even waiting for. There was no way this world's Rom would care what happened to Ram, assuming she even knew about it, so she was out. What about their Oracle then, Mina?

In her world, that would have gone without question, but here... What was Mina like? If Arfoire had gone from bad to good, then... Neptune suddenly got the mental image of Mina turning into someone like that Trick guy and promptly shuddered. The quick distraction caused her to lose, and Neptune was just about to turn the game off when she caught sight of the top names on the list of high scores.

NEP. NEP. NEP. RAM. ROM.

Neptune nearly dropped the game in shock as she realized the significance of what she was holding.

This game... Whoever it belonged to, Neptune couldn't say, but this game... It was a direct connection to the Neptune of this world! It was almost like she could communicate with the other Neptune now, albeit through a video game!

Neptune found herself grinning.

"Let's do this!"

No longer set on turning off the game, Neptune found herself filled with a surge of motivation. She could totally compete with some goody two shoes version of herself, right? Especially in a video game! If she couldn't do that, then what kind of person did that make her?!

Neptune had been sure it would be over quickly. She was a goddess, after all. This would be a cinch. Maybe she could beat it fast enough to beat all her doppelgänger's high scores here! It would only take a second or two, then she'd be right at the top of the scoreboard where she belonged!

Thoroughly distracted by the prospect of competing with the person she had heard so darn much about ever since she had arrived, Neptune let herself get absorbed into the game. Those first few seconds turned into a minute, and that minute became many minutes. The minutes added up to an hour and they kept on piling on, until the sun had set outside.

A fact Neptune only realized when the pictures on the game's screen faded into nothing, giving in to the cold reality of a lack of power.

"Awww! I was so close!" Neptune declared indignantly, despite this being quite untrue. Scowling at the game, Neptune looked around once again, stretching her arms as far as they could go as she let out a loud yawn. Princess Fenrietta was fast asleep, whereas Sir Burnsalot was still at his post at the door. "I wonder if they even know for sure if anyone is even coming at all..."

Sighing, Neptune stood. She was slow at first, letting blood flow resume its normal routine after all that intense sitting and hardcore not moving she had been doing, before heading back to the shelf she had gotten the game and system from to see if there was a charger of some kind.

As Neptune walked, she paid a little more attention to the smaller things this time. She had only given the giant pictures any real looks, as they were much easier to look at without having to get close, but just as she had observed earlier, there were also photographs taped onto the walls as well. Most of them appeared to be of Ram's monster friends growing up (they even had ages marked), and while cute in a way, it wasn't that exciting to Neptune.

But just as Neptune was about to dismiss looking at the pictures entirely, one caught her eye. It was surrounded by other pictures and drawings, as if it was either being hidden or maybe being... enshrined, maybe? It was a strange set up for sure, but this picture... Even at a glance, Neptune could tell.

There was something... familiar about it...

Stuffing the game in her pocket for the time being, Neptune made her way over to the picture to get a better look at it.

Unfortunately for her, the closer she got, the more she found herself feeling like things made even less sense here. This picture, the clearer it became, began to make her question many of the things she thought she knew about this world. Even things she had witnessed herself. Silently, mouth slightly agape, Neptune gently reached for the picture and pulled it off of the wall.

She didn't understand this.

It was a picture of five people. That wasn't that weird, was it?

One of them was Ram.

That wasn't weird either. This was Ram's place, so why wouldn't there be pictures with her and other people here?

It was who those people were that threatened to shatter Neptune's trust in everything and everyone she had met up until now.

The first problems were raised when Neptune looked at the people on either immediate side of Ram.

On one side was... herself. There were differences in things, but Neptune knew what her own face looked like.

Forget playing a game against her. Right now, Neptune was actually looking straight at the person she'd been hearing so much about. For a moment, time seemed to stand still as Neptune took that in. She didn't pay any immediate attention to her clothes or hair, for it was her face, her expression, that pulled Neptune in and made her feel very small.

Even though it was just an old picture, Neptune could see it clearly on her other self's face. The person in this picture was kind. She was kind and sweet and downright serene. If Noire or one of the others could see this picture, one look and they would think this Neptune was everything Neptune herself was not.

Neptune was inclined to agree, for better or for worse, and with that upsetting thought in mind, she moved on the next major problem the picture raised.

So on one side of Ram was Neptune. That still wasn't that strange, was it? After all, Ram had already confirmed they knew each other.

The problem was, while on one side of Ram stood Neptune, on the other side... was Rom.

That didn't make sense.

That just didn't make any sense.

Neptune didn't have to base this on anything she had been told to know it didn't make sense. She knew herself it didn't make sense.

Why would the two of them ever be in a picture like this together when it was very clear this afternoon that the last thing Rom would ever want to do with Ram would be get close enough to her for a picture? And if Rom had ever been close enough to this Neptune to get a picture with her, why wasn't Neptune recognized this afternoon?

What was going on here?

Was this a picture from yet another alternate universe...?!

That wasn't even the worst of it.

The icing on this mind blowing cake was still yet to come.

Behind the trio was another pair. A pair, given everything Neptune had been told about certain things that had taken place in this world, Neptune would never expect to see in anything together. Certainly not this. Yet here they were, posing for a picture with another pair that shouldn't be willing to take a picture together given everything Neptune knew about this world.

Who were the two people behind Neptune, Ram, and Rom?

Though their attire was quite different from what Neptune knew them to wear, those two people standing there in the picture were without a doubt Nepgear and...

"Neptune!? Neptune, is that you?!"

Eyes wide, like an animal caught in the headlights, Neptune stashed the picture away into her inventory and spun around, only to meet the worried gaze of the final person that had been shown in the mysterious picture, now standing before her completely in the flesh.

Swallowing, Neptune tried desperately to find her voice.

"A... Arfy?"


End file.
